Title: Discovery of a GeV blazar shining through the galactic plane

Abstract

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) discovered a new gamma-ray source near the Galactic plane, Fermi J0109+6134, when it flared brightly in 2010 February. The low Galactic latitude (b = –1$$ο\atop{.}$$2) indicated that the source could be located within the Galaxy, which motivated rapid multi-wavelength follow-up including radio, optical, and X-ray observations. Here, we report the results of analyzing all 19 months of LAT data for the source, and of X-ray observations with both Swift and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. We determined the source redshift, z = 0.783, using a Keck Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer observation. Finally, we compiled a broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) from both historical and new observations contemporaneous with the 2010 February flare. The redshift, SED, optical line width, X-ray absorption, and multi-band variability indicate that this new GeV source is a blazar seen through the Galactic plane. Because several of the optical emission lines have equivalent width >5 Å, this blazar belongs in the flat-spectrum radio quasar category.

Authors:

Vandenbroucke, J.; Buehler, R.; Ajello, M.; Bechtol, K.; Bellini, A.; Bolte, M.; Cheung, C. C.; Civano, F.; Donato, D.; Fuhrmann, L.; Funk, S.; Healey, S. E.; Hill, A. B.; Knigge, C.; Madejski, G. M.; Romani, R. W.; Santander-García, M.; Shaw, M. S.; Steeghs, D.; Torres, M. A. P. more »; Van Etten, A.; Williams, K. A. « less

Publication Date:

Wed Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 2010

Research Org.:

SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE

Contributing Org.:

The Fermi LAT Collaboration

OSTI Identifier:

1357541

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-76SF00515

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

The Astrophysical Journal. Letters

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 718; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-8205

Publisher:

Institute of Physics (IOP)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; galaxies active