These Machines Find Black Holes: Update on the Swift/MAXI Transient Follow-up Program
Abstract
We present an update on the Swift/MAXI collaborative program to localize and monitor new bright X-ray Galactic transients discovered by the Japanese "Monitor of the All Sky X-ray Image" (MAXI), onboard the International Space Station, by NASA's Swift Explorer Mission. These two missions are uniquely complementary in this program. MAXI's 0.5-20 keV almost-all-sky monitoring every ISS orbit allows it to quickly detect and report new Transients in our Galaxy, albeit with relatively poor localization accuracy 0.2 degrees). Swift's fast slewing and automated TOO respond allows for rapid (<24 hours, sometimes < 1 hour) observation of these new transients, and the Swift X-ray Telescope's (XRT) field of view is well matched with MAXI's. Combined with UVOT Swift can report arc-second accuracy positions of these transients, and due to the low overhead afforded by Swift's rapid slewing, perform regular daily) monitoring with short exposures 1ks) in order to track the spectral and temporal evolution of these transients. We report on the progress of this project, with a primary focus on it's ability to discover new Black Hole candidate binaries in our galaxy.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #221
- Pub Date:
- January 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AAS...22142105K