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Session 48 - New Insights on X-ray Binaries - II.
Oral session, Wednesday, June 11
North Main Hall C/D,
GRO J1744-28 was discovered with the Burst And Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) onboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) on 2 December, 1995, when a series of bursts, almost 3 minutes apart, were recorded with the BATSE Large Area Detectors. After a couple of days the bursts rate settled to \sim2 per hour, and remained constant thereafter. In January 1996, steady emission exhibiting pulsations was detected from the source, which was then named GRO J1744-28, or the Bursting Pulsar. Pulsar time arrival analysis showed that GRO J1744-28 was a (transient) Low-Mass X-Ray Binary with an \sim11 day orbit. This first outburst was detectable with BATSE for almost 5 months, during which the source emitted over 3500 bursts. After February 1996, the source was monitored with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), which was able to determine that the steady emission was always present, albeit at a very low level between 2-60 keV. On 2 December, 1996, BATSE detected another series of bursts from GRO J1744-28, originally \sim3 minutes apart, but settling to the 2 per hour rate in the next days. This second outburst was still detected with BATSE in April. I will report observations for both outbursts and will compare the properties of the source during each active period.
