Two days ago I wrote Waiting for U Sco. Today, here are a few excerpts from ATel #14941 (The Astronomer’s Telegram):
The Large Area Telescope (LAT), one of two instruments on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, has detected a new transient gamma-ray source, Fermi J1623-1752.
A possible counterpart to the LAT transient is the recurrent nova U Scorpii with position offset by 0.18 deg from the LAT position, thus just outside the 95% confidence error circle, but within the 99% confidence error circle. U Sco has a known recurrence interval of 10.3 years (Schaefer 2010, ApJS, 187, 275) prior to its outburst in January 2010, thus a new outburst from U Sco could be anticipated. The last observation of U Sco in the AAVSO lightcurve database was on 2021 Sep 19.
Because Fermi normally operates in an all-sky scanning mode, regular gamma-ray monitoring of this source will continue. In consideration of the ongoing activity of this source, we encourage multi-wavelength observations, particularly optical follow-up of U Sco.
ATel #14941
I read about this in a post by Alexandre Amorim (Brazil) in the AAVSO novae forum. Robert Fidrich (Hungary) soon followed up with an iTelescope observation to say that there was no eruption visible.
Given that U Sco almost certainly had an outburst in its “seasonal gap” (unobservable due to position on the sky), probably in 2017, what this current gamma ray event means seems pretty uncertain.
I’ll continue imaging the U Sco region until it’s too low tonight (in between the clouds) and, consistent with my last post, whenever I can thereafter.
June 8, 2022 at 1:08 am |
[…] In late September 2021, I wrote about the recurrent nova U Scorpii: Waiting for U Sco and Waiting for U Sco: nearby gamma ray transient detected. […]