TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 38239 SUBJECT: EP241115a: EP detection of a fast X-ray transient DATE: 24/11/15 16:02:42 GMT FROM: EP Team at NAOC/CAS ep_ta@bao.ac.cn
J. W. Hu (NAO, CAS), M. Q. Huang, Z. Y. Liu (USTC), C. Y. Dai (NJU), Y. J. Zhang (THU), C. X. Zhang (HUST), Y. Liu (NAO, CAS) on behalf of the Einstein Probe team
We report on the detection of a fast X-ray transient, designated EP241115a, by the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) on board the Einstein Probe (EP) mission. The transient was detected at 2024-11-15 05:47:20 (UTC) and lasted for around 500 seconds. The WXT position of EP241115a is R.A.= 19.416 deg, DEC = -17.954 deg (J2000) with an uncertainty of 2.6 arcmin (radius, 90% C.L. statistical and systematic). It has a peak flux of ~1 x 10^-9 erg/s/cm^2 in the 0.5-4 keV band. The average 0.5-4 keV spectrum can be fitted with an absorbed power law with a photon index of 0.56(+0.54/-0.51) (with a column density fixed at the Galactic one of 1.6 x 10^20 cm^-2). The derived average unabsorbed 0.5-4 keV flux is 1.42(+0.6/-0.4) x 10^(-10) erg/s/cm^2. The uncertainties are at the 90% confidence level for the above parameters.
No previously known bright X-ray sources are found within the error circle around the source position. Further follow-up observations are encouraged to identify the nature of this X-ray transient.
Launched on January 9, 2024, EP is a space X-ray observatory to monitor the soft X-ray sky with X-ray follow-up capability (Yuan et al. 2022, Handbook of X-ray and Gamma-ray Astrophysics).
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