The Discovery of an Outburst and Pulsed X-Ray Flux from SMC X-2 Using the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer

Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) All-Sky Monitor observations of SMC X-2 show that the source experienced an outburst in 2000 January-April reaching a peak luminosity of greater than ~10³⁸ ergs s^-1. RXTE Proportional Counter Array observations during this outburst reveal the presence of pulsations with a 2.37 s period. However, optical photometry of the optical counterpart shows that the source was still significantly fainter than it was more than a half a year after the outburst in the 1970s when SMC X-2 was discovered.