Discovery of type-I X-ray bursts from GRS 1741.9-2853

Abstract

For the first time X-ray bursts have been detected from a sky position consistent with the one of GRS 1741.9-2853, a GRANAT transient source located only ~10' from the Galactic Centre. A total of 3 bursts have been observed by the Wide Field Cameras telescopes on board BeppoSAX during a monitoring observation of the Sgr A region in August-September 1996. The characteristics of the events are consistent with type-I bursts, thus identifying the source as a likely low-mass X-ray binary containing a neutron star. Evidence of photospheric radius expansion due to super-Eddington luminosity is present in one of the observed bursts, thus leading to an estimate og the source distance (~8 kpc).