TY - JOUR
T1 - Discovery of a GeV blazar shining through the galactic plane
AU - Vandenbroucke-Grauls, Christina M J E
AU - Buehler, R.
AU - Ajello, M.
AU - Bechtol, K.
AU - Bellini, A.
AU - Bolte, M
AU - Cheung, C. C.
AU - Civano, F.
AU - Di Donato, Sabrina
AU - Fuhrmann, Laetitia
AU - Funk, S.
AU - Healey, S. E.
AU - Hill, A. B.
AU - Knigge, C.
AU - Madejski, G. M.
AU - Romani, Roger W
AU - Santander-García, M.
AU - Shaw, M. S.
AU - Steeghs, D.
AU - Torres, Manuel A P
AU - Van Etten, A.
AU - Williams, K. A.
PY - 2010/8/1
Y1 - 2010/8/1
N2 - 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.°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. 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.
AB - 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.°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. 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.
KW - Active
KW - Galaxies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78349291209&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/2041-8205/718/2/L166
DO - 10.1088/2041-8205/718/2/L166
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:78349291209
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 718
JO - The Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - The Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 2 PART 2
ER -