3C 279

The GRO/EGRET Team (D. L. Bertsch, C. E. Fichtel, R. C. Hartman, S. D. Hunter, D. A. Kniffen, P. Kwok, J. R. Mattox, P. Sreekumar, and D. J. Thompson, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA; G. Kanbach, H. A. Mayer-Hasselwander, K. Pinkau, H. Rothermel, M. Sommer, and C. V. Montigny, Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik; Y. C. Lin, P. F. Michelson, and P. L. Nolan, Stanford University; and E. Schneid, Grumman Aerospace) communicates: "During the period June 15-28, we detected an intense localized source of 100-MeV gamma radiation positionally coincident (within a 5' error circle) with the variable quasar 3C 279. At its present intensity, this source would have been visible to the SAS-2 or COS-B high energy telescope; neither reported a detection during 1972-73 and 1975-82, respectively."