Observations of a Possible New Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR 1801-23
Cline, T.; Hurley, K.; Kouveliotou, C.; van Paradijs, J.; Frederiks, D. D.; Golenetskii, S.; Mazets, E.
United States, Russia, Netherlands
Abstract
We report on two 1997 June observations of a soft bursting source whose time histories and energy spectra are consistent with those of the soft gamma repeaters. The source can be localized only to an ~3.8d long error box in the direction of the Galactic center, whose area is ~80 arcmin2. The location of the source, while not consistent with that of any of the four known soft repeaters, is consistent with those of several known and possible supernova remnants.