Discovery of Very High Energy Gamma-Rays from the Distant Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar 3C 279 with the MAGIC Telescope

• Main Authors: Teshima, Masahiro, Prandini, Elisa, Bock, Rudolf, Errando, Manel, Kranich, Daniel, Majumdar, Pratik, Mazin, Daniel, Lindfors, Elina, Lorenz, Eckart, Mariotti, Mose, Scalzotto, Villi, Wagner, Robert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 10.09.2007
• Subjects: Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Physics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; Physics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Physics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.0709.1475

Proc. 30th Int. Cosm. Ray Conf., R. Caballero et al. (eds.), UNAM, Mexico City, 2008, Vol. 3, pg. 1045-1048 The quasar 3C 279 is one of the best-studied flat spectrum radio quasars. It is located at a comparatively large redshift of z=0.536: E>100 GeV observations of such distant sources were until recently impossible both due to the expected steep energy spectrum and the expected attenuation of the gamma-rays by the extragalactic background light. Here we present results on the observation of 3C 279 with the MAGIC telescope in early 2006. We report the detection of a significant very high energy gamma-ray signal in the MAGIC energy range on the observation night of 2006 February 23.