Detection of hard X-ray emission from the Galactic nuclear region with INTEGRAL

Abstract

This letter presents the first results of an observational campaign to study the Galactic Centre with INTEGRAL. The mosaicked images obtained with the IBIS/ISGRI coded aperture instrument in the energy ranges 20-40 and 40-100 keV, give a yet unseen view of the high-energy sources of this region in hard X- and gamma-rays with an angular resolution of 12 arcmin (FWHM). We report on the discovery of a source, IGR J17456-2901, coincident with the Galactic Nucleus SgrA* to within 0.9 arcmin. Located at R.A.(J2000.0) = 17h45m38.5s, Dec.(J2000.0) = -29:01:15, the source is visible up to about 100 keV with a 20-100 keV luminosity at 8 kpc of (2.89 +/- 0.41) x 10^35 ergs/s. Although the new INTEGRAL source cannot unequivocally be associated to the Galactic Nucleus, this is the first report of significant hard X-ray emission from within the inner 10 arcmin of the Galaxy and a contribution from the galactic supermassive black hole itself cannot be excluded.

4 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (18)

• Closest Star Seen Orbiting the Supermassive Black Hole at the Centre of the Milky Way
• ISGRI: the INTEGRAL Soft Gamma-Ray Imager
• Chandra X-ray Spectroscopic Imaging of Sgr A* and the Central Parsec of the Galaxy
• Near-infrared flares from accreting gas around the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Centre
• Rapid X-ray flaring from the direction of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Centre
• The Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center
• The INTEGRAL/IBIS Scientific Data Analysis
• XMM-Newton observation of the brightest X-ray flare detected so far from SgrA*
• A Deep Chandra Catalog of X-ray Point Sources toward the Galactic Center
• ASCA X-ray source catalogue in the Galactic Center region
• A New X-Ray Flare from the Galactic Nucleus Detected with the XMM-Newton Photon Imaging Cameras
• The INTEGRAL IBIS/ISGRI System Point Spread Function and Source Location Accuracy
• Origin of the Hard X-ray Emission from the Galactic Plane
• The Origin of X-ray Emission from a Galactic Center Molecular Cloud: Low Energy Cosmic Ray Electrons
• The Zoo of X-ray sources in the Galactic Center Region: Observations with BeppoSAX
• The X-ray Binary GRS 1741.9-2853 in Outburst and Quiescence
• A Model of the EGRET Source at the Galactic Center: Inverse Compton Scattering Within Sgr A East and its Halo
• Deep SIGMA observations of the central square degree of the Galaxy

Cited by in corpus (28)

• The Galactic Center Massive Black Hole and Nuclear Star Cluster
• On The Origin Of The Gamma Rays From The Galactic Center
• TeV Gamma-Ray Observations of the Galactic Center
• High energy gamma rays from the massive black hole in the Galactic Center
• Wild at Heart:-The Particle Astrophysics of the Galactic Centre
• Hard X-ray emission from the Galactic ridge
• Chandra Deep X-ray Observation of a Typical Galactic Plane Region and Near-Infrared Identification
• Non-Thermal Insights on Mass and Energy Flows Through the Galactic Centre and into the Fermi Bubbles
• Inverse Compton Scenarios for the TeV Gamma-Ray Emission of the Galactic Centre
• TeV Emission from the Galactic Center Black-Hole Plerion
• A Persistent High-Energy Flux from the Heart of the Milky Way : Integral's view of the Galactic Center
• Concurrent X-ray, near-infrared, sub-millimeter, and GeV gamma-ray observations of Sgr A*
• A comparison of the R_h=ct and LCDM cosmologies using the Cosmic Distance Duality Relation
• Have Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescopes Observed Dark Matter?
• Testing RIAF model for Sgr A* using the size measurements
• INTEGRAL: science highlights and future prospects
• Simultaneous H.E.S.S. and Chandra observations of Sagittarius A* during an X-ray flare
• Hard X-ray Bursts Detected by the IBIS Telescope Onboard the INTEGRAL Observatory in 2003-2004
• High Energy Cosmic-ray Diffusion in Molecular Clouds: A Numerical Approach
• Suzaku Detection of Extended/Diffuse Hard X-Ray Emission from the Galactic Center
• XMM-Newton observations of the Galactic Centre Region - II: The soft thermal emission
• Soft gamma-ray constraints on a bright flare from the Galactic Center supermassive black hole
• Diffusive Cosmic Ray Acceleration at the Galactic Centre
• Radio Synchrotron Emission from Secondary Leptons in the Vicinity of Sgr A*
• The catalog of variable sources detected by INTEGRAL I: Catalog and Techniques
• High Energy Activity of the Super-Massive Black Hole at the Galactic Center
• Polarimetric Imaging of Sgr A* in its Flaring State
• High Energy Emission from the Galactic Center