GCN Circular 1078
Subject
SGR1900+14: High Fluence Burst Localized by HETE
Date
2001-07-02T05:29:50Z (24 years ago)
From
George Ricker at MIT <grr@space.mit.edu>
SGR1900+14: High Fluence Burst Localized by HETE
G. Ricker, D. Lamb, and S. Woosley on behalf of the HETE Science Team;
R. Vanderspek, G. Crew, J. Doty, G. Monnelly, J. Villasenor; N.
Butler, T. Cline, J.G. Jernigan, A. Levine, F. Martel, E. Morgan, G.
Pizzichini, and G. Prigozhin, on behalf of the HETE Operations and
HETE Optical-SXC Teams;
N. Kawai, M. Matsuoka, Y. Shirasaki, T. Tamagawa, K. Torii, T.
Sakamoto, A. Yoshida, E. Fenimore, M. Galassi, and C. Graziani, on
behalf of the HETE WXM Team;
J-L Atteia, M. Boer, J-F Olive, J-P Dezalay, and K. Hurley on behalf
of the HETE FREGATE Team;
write:
At 03:34:06.53 UTC (12846.53 s UT) on 2 July, the HETE FREGATE and
WXM instruments detected and localized an intense burst from
SGR1900+14, a soft gamma-ray repeater. This event is the highest
fluence burst yet detected by HETE from SGR1900+14 during its current
episode of activity. (The first burst in the current series was
reported in GCN Circular #1071.) The coordinates (J2000) of the 2
July burst are:
R.A. = 286.846 (19h07m23s.1)
Dec. = +9.344 (+9o20'40")
The error circle for this localization is 12 arcmin in radius.
SGR1900+14 lies 4.1 arcmin from the HETE position.
The burst duration in the 8-40 keV band was ~4 s. A total of 44000
counts above background were detected during that interval,
corresponding to a fluence of ~8 x 10-6 ergs cm-2 . The peak flux
was >7 x 10-6 ergs cm-2 s-1 (ie >200 x Crab flux) over a duration of
10 ms.
Follow-up observations of this transient are encouraged.
Additional information on this burst detection (including light
curves), as well as for the HETE mission, will be available at:
http://space.mit.edu/HETE/
Acronyms: HETE=High Energy Transient Explorer
FREGATE=French Gamma Ray Telescope
WXM=Wide Field X-ray Monitor
SXC=Soft X-ray Camera
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