GCN Circular 40198

G. Y. Zhao (SYSU), C. Zhou (HUST), R.-Z. Li (YNAO, CAS), W. Chen, Z. X. Ling (NAO, CAS) on behalf of the Einstein Probe (EP) team:

We report on the detection of an X-ray transient by the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) on board the Einstein Probe (EP) mission, designated EP250421a. The transient triggered EP-WXT (ID: 01709135179) at 2025-04-21T16:16:28 (UTC) and WXT detected a rise of about 70 s. The WXT position of the source is R.A. = 172.4130 deg, DEC = -24.6830 deg (J2000) with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin in radius (90% C.L. statistical and systematic).

A follow-up observation with the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) was performed automatically about 245 s after the EP/WXT trigger. Within the WXT error circle, an uncatalogued X-ray source was detected at R.A. = 172.4201 deg, DEC = -24.6758 deg (J2000) with an uncertainty of 10 arcsec in radius (90% C.L. statistical and systematic).

The WXT spectrum can be fitted by an absorbed power law model with a photon index of 2.91(+2.76, -1.72) and an absorbing column density of 4.1e21 cm^-2. The unabsorbed 0.5-4 keV flux is about 1.3 (+14.7,-0.81) e-9 erg/cm^2/s.

The FXT spectrum can be fitted by an absorbed power law model with a photon index of 2.11 (+0.15, -0.14) and an absorbing column density of 8.3e20 cm^-2. The unabsorbed 0.5-10 keV flux is about 1.39 (+0.07, -1.39) e-11 erg/cm^2/s.

The contact TA of EP250421a is Chang Zhou. Please contact her via email d202180110@hust.edu.cn if needed.

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).