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J. V. Foreman (Berry College), M. Eracleous (Pennsylvania State University), J. P. Halpern (Columbia University), D. J. Thompson (Goddard Space Flight Center), P. M. Wallace (Berry College)
We present a formal multiwavelength examination of the EGRET source 3EG J0433+2908 and conclude that the source is a BL Lac type blazar. Dingus et al. 1996 hypothesized that this EGRET source belongs to the blazar class of AGN; they further noted that the most likely radio counterpart is 87GB 0430+2859. The EGRET data for 3EG J0433+2908 suggest time variability typical of BL Lac objects. Archival radio data confirms that 87GB 0430+2859 is by far the brightest flat-spectrum radio source within the 95% confidence contour of J0433+2908; data taken at GBI incicate that this radio source is variable on a timescale of ~1 month at 2.25 GHz and 8.3 GHz. The ROSAT all-sky survey reports a hard X-ray source within one degree of the center of the EGRET 95% confidence contour; this X-ray source is within 5" of the candidate radio source's position as listed in the NVSS catalog. The 2MASS Point Source Catalog contains one infrared source that lies within 1" of the NVSS position and associates this infrared source with an optical counterpart that also lies within ~1" of the NVSS position, according to the USNO-A catalog. Spectroscopy indicates that the optical counterpart exhibits a red, featureless spectrum typical of BL Lac type blazars. Together, these multiwavelength data trace out a bimodal spectral energy distribution--a signature of members of the blazar class of AGN. This is the first blazar identification to be prompted by gamma-ray observations.