EP261003a

Noémie Globus (UNAM), Jean-Grégoire Ducoin (CPPM), Camila Angulo (UNAM), Stéphane Basa (UAR Pytheas), William H. Lee (UNAM), Edilberto Aguilar-Ruiz (UNAM), Jean-Luc Atteia (IRAP), Dalya Akl (NYUAD), Sarah Antier (IJCLAB), Rosa L. Becerra (UNAM), Nathaniel R. Butler (ASU), Damien Dornic (CPPM), Francis Fortin (IRAP),  Leonardo García-García (UNAM), Ramandeep Gill (UNAM), Marion Guelfand (CPPM), Asuka Kuwata (UNAM), Massimiliano Lincetto (CPPM), Nikos Mandarakas (LAM), Diego López-Cámara (UNAM), Francesco Magnani (CPPM), Enrique Moreno Méndez (UNAM), Margarita Pereyra (UNAM), Fredd Sánchez Álvarez (UNAM), Benjamin Schneider (LAM), Antonio de Ugarte Postigo (LAM),  Alan M. Watson (UNAM) report:

We imaged the field of the EP261003a (Lao et al., GCN Circ. 45798
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 ) using the DDRAGO two-channel wide-field imager on the COLIBRÍ telescope. We observed from 2026-10-03 03:41:26 to 04:47:19 UTC (from 3.45 to 4.56 hours after the trigger) and obtained 51 minutes of simultaneous exposure in the r and z filters.

The data were reduced and analyzed with the COLIBRÍ ASU pipeline. The photometry was calibrated using nearby stars from the PanSTARRS DR1 catalog, is in the AB system, and is not corrected for Galactic extinction.

In the stacked image, we do not detect any new source at the FXT source position down to the following 5-sigma limit:

r > 23.88,
z > 22.40.

Further observations are ongoing.

We thank the staff of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional at Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, as well as the technical and engineering teams at CEA, CPPM, IRAP, LAM, OHP, OSU Pytheas, and UNAM.

COLIBRÍ is an astronomical observatory developed and operated jointly by France (AMU, CNES and CNRS) and Mexico (UNAM and SECIHTI). It is located at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico.

Q.H. Lao, H.Y. Liu (NAO, CAS), Y.H. Jiang (NJU), Y.H. Cheng (YNU) and Y. Liu (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 EP261003a. The transient triggered EP-WXT (ID: 01709320865) at 2026-10-03T00:14:43 (UTC). The WXT position of the source is R.A. = 307.524 deg, DEC = -12.936 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. Within the WXT error circle, an uncatalogued X-ray source was detected at R.A. = 307.5318 deg, DEC = -12.9422 deg (J2000) with an uncertainty of 20 arcsec in radius (90% C.L. statistical and systematic). 

Further information will be updated when the telemetry data is 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).