X-RAY IMAGES OF THE GALACTIC-CENTER OBTAINED WITH ART-P GRANAT - DISCOVERY OF NEW SOURCES, VARIABILITY OF PERSISTENT SOURCES, AND LOCALIZATION OF X-RAY BURSTERS

Five series of Galactic Center field observations spaced by time intervals of half a year were performed with the ART-P coded-mask X-ray telescope aboard the GRAN AT observatory in 1990-1992. The telescope allows X-ray images to be obtained in the 3-30 keV band and X-ray sources to be localized with accuracy better than 1.5 arcmin. Twelve X-ray sources were revealed within the 5 by 5 degree neighborhood of Sgr A*, the nucleus of our Galaxy. Four of these sources, GRS 1741.9-2853, GRS 1736-297, GRS 1734-292, and GRS 1747-312 (associated with the globular cluster Terzan 6), were not observed before. Strong X-ray variability of Sgr A* and 1E 1740.7-2942, the hardest source in the field, was detected. More than 20 X-ray bursts from well-known sources A1742-294, SLX 1744-299, GX 3 + 1, and others were observed.