Discovery of the NLS1 Mkn 335 in an extremely low UV flux state with Swift

ATel #8477; Dirk Grupe (Morehead State University), Anna Lia Longinotti (Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica), Gerard Kriss (STScI), S. Komossa (MPIfR), Luigi Gallo & Dan Wilkins(St. Mary's University)
on 30 Dec 2015; 16:44 UT
Credential Certification: Dirk Grupe (dgrupe007@gmail.com)

Tweet

We report on the discovery of the highly variable Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mkn 335 (RA-2000=00h06m19.5s, Dec-2000=+20d12m11s) in an unusually low flux state in the ultra-violet since starting our monitoring campaign with Swift in May 2007 (Grupe et al. 2007, 2012). We found Mkn 335 in our most recent Swift observation on 2015 December 29 in the UVOT W2 filter of (uncorrected) 13.92+/-0.05 mag (equivalent to a flux of (2.8+/-0.12)e-14 W m^-2). Mkn 335 remains highly variable in X-rays and is currently at a very low X-ray flux state at a level of 3.2e-15 W m^-2 in the 0.3-10 keV band, which is a factor of 4 lower than seen four days earlier. Due to the current state of Mkn 335 we have initiated pre-approved triggered observations with XMM on 2015 December 31, and with HST 2016 January 04 and 07. We will continue monitoring Mkn 335 with Swift until it will go into its sun-constraint at the beginning of February. We encourage in particular optical observers to obtain optical spectra that will allow to search for any changes in the permitted emission line fluxes and ratios.