AGILE detects intense and prolonged gamma-ray activity from the FSRQ 3C 454.3

The AGILE Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) has been detecting prolonged flaring gamma-ray emission above 100 MeV from the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 454.3. Integrating from 2009-11-26 01 00UT to 2009-12-02 08 30UT, a quick-look maximum likelihood analysis yields a source flux of about 700e-8 ph/cm2/sec (E > 100 MeV), with a peak in the last 48 hours of the order of 1000e-8 ph/cm2/sec (E > 100 MeV).