TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 31601 SUBJECT: ZTF22aaajecp/AT2022cmc: NICER X-ray detection DATE: 22/02/17 04:19:47 GMT FROM: Dheeraj R. Pasham at Mass. Inst. of Technology Dheeraj Pasham (MIT), Keith Gendreau (NASA/GSFC), Zaven Arzoumanian (NASA/GSFC), Brad Cenko (NASA/GSFC) NICER observed the rapidly fading red transient AT2022cmc for 640 seconds starting at 2022-02-16T19:07:03. X-rays are clearly detected above the background in the 0.3-6.0 keV band with a mean count rate of 12.9+-0.14 counts/seconds. We fit the 0.3-6 keV X-ray spectrum with a powerlaw modified by neutral absorption (tbabs*pow in XSPEC). This gives a good fit with a chi-squared/degrees of freedom of 216/207. The best-fit power law index and column density values are 1.56+-0.05 and (3.9+-0.7)e21 cm^-2, respectively. The 0.3-6 keV observed flux is (3.04+-0.05)e-11 erg/s/cm^2. Further NICER observations are planned. To coordinate NICER/X-ray observations with other facilities please contact drrreddy@mit.edu. NICER can carry out prompt follow-up observations of transients and is planning to systematically follow up alerts from LIGO/Virgo and other X-ray bright extra-galactic transients in the future. NICER is a 0.2-12 keV X-ray telescope operating on the International Space Station. The NICER mission and portions of the NICER science team activities are funded by NASA. -- Dheeraj Pasham Research Scientist, MIT http://space.mit.edu/~dheeraj