30TH INTERNATIONAL COSMIC RAY CONFERENCE Observation of 3C279 with the MAGIC telescope

Abstract: The high luminosity blazar 3C279 has been discovered by the EGRET instrument on board the CGRO. Later, intensive simultaneous monitoring of this object was done in low energy gamma-rays, X-rays and optical to probe crucial questions regarding the emission mechanims and structure of jets. However, no ground based VHE gamma ray experiment has been able to detect a signal from it due to its high redshift and the high energy threshold of these experiments. MAGIC is currently the only running Cherenkov experiment which has a high sensitivity at low energy thresholds ( ∼ 100 GeV). Observation of 3C279 was carried out by MAGIC in the first 2 years of its scientific operation. We present the results of this observation and discuss the implications of our results in the light of various models