TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  38051
SUBJECT: EP241103a: an X-ray transient detected by Einstein Probe
DATE:    24/11/03 03:58:21 GMT
FROM:    EP Team at NAOC/CAS <ep_ta@bao.ac.cn>

T. Zhao (NAO, CAS), Y. F. Liang (PMO, CAS), H. Y. Liu, W.D. Zhang (NAO, CAS) report on behalf of the Einstein Probe team:

We report on the detection of an X-ray transient designated EP241103a by the Einstein Probe (EP) mission. The transient event triggered the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) on-board processing unit at 2024-11-03T01:24:37 (UTC). The autonomous follow-up observation performed by the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) started about 55 minutes later (the delay of the FXT observation was due to the Earth obscuration). Afterwards, the FXT on-board processing unit was also triggered, showing that an uncatalogued source was detected at R.A. = 27.7572, DEC = 18.9587 (J2000) with an uncertainty of about 20 arcsec (radius, 90% C.L. statistical and systematic).  

More information on this source will be updated when the full telemetry data are received. 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).