GCN Circular 44712

J. Yang (ZZU), B. T. Wang (YNAO, CAS), D. F. Hu (PMO, CAS), J. P. Feng, B. Zhang (USTC), D. Zhu, K. J. Zhang (YNU) and W. D. Zhang (NAO, CAS) on behalf of the Einstein Probe (EP) team: 

We report on the detection of a fast X-ray transient by the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) on board the Einstein Probe (EP) mission, designated EP260526a. The transient did not trigger the onboard unit, a GCN notice (ID: 06800001478) was sent manually. The WXT position of the source is R.A. = 236.063 deg, DEC = -23.771 deg (J2000) with an uncertainty of 2.4 arcmin in radius (90% C.L. statistical and systematic). The preliminary analysis of the WXT data shows that the event started at 2026-05-26T09:43:34 (UTC) and lasted for about 140 seconds. The average WXT 0.5-4.0 keV spectrum can be fitted with an absorbed powerlaw model, with a fixed Galactic hydrogen column density of 2.13 x 10^21 cm^-2 and a photon index of 1.98 (+0.78/-0.70). The unabsorbed 0.5-4.0 keV flux is 8.2 (+2.8/-2.2) x 10^(-10) erg/s/cm^2. The uncertainties are at the 90% confidence level for the above parameters. 

Further FXT observations are scheduled. Additional information will be updated when the telemetry data are received. 

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).