//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6383 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: Swift detection of an intense burst with an optical counterpart DATE: 07/05/08 04:47:27 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC D. Grupe (PSU), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), M. M. Chester (PSU), G. Cusumano (INAF-IASFPA), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), C. Pagani (PSU), D. M. Palmer (LANL), J. L. Racusin (PSU), M. Stamatikos (NASA/ORAU) and L. Vetere (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 04:18:17 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 070508 (trigger=278854). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 312.783, -78.368 which is RA(J2000) = 20h 51m 08s Dec(J2000) = -78d 22' 04" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows a complex multi-peaked structure with a duration of at least 40 sec. The peak count rate was ~45000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~15 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 04:19:33 UT, 76 seconds after the BAT trigger. XRT found a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 312.7959, -78.3850 which is RA(J2000) = 20h 51m 11.0s Dec(J2000) = -78d 23' 06.0" with an uncertainty of 5.0 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 62 arcseconds from the BAT on-board position, within the BAT error circle. The initial flux in the 2.5s image was 1.6e-09 erg/cm2/s (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 100 seconds with the White (160-650 nm) filter starting 85 seconds after the BAT trigger. There is a candidate afterglow in the rapidly available 2.7'x2.7' sub-image at RA(J2000) = 20:51:11.81 = 312.7992 DEC(J2000) = -78:23:04.9 = -78.3847 with a 1-sigma error radius of about 0.5 arc sec. This position is 2.6 arc sec. from the center of the XRT error circle. The estimated magnitude is 19.4 with a 1-sigma error of about 0.5 mag. No correction has been made for the expected reddening of E(B-V) of 0.14. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6384 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: TAROT La Silla observatory optical observations DATE: 07/05/08 05:11:57 GMT FROM: Alain Klotz at CESR-CNRS Klotz, A. (CESR-OMP), Boer M. (OHP), Atteia J.L. (LATT-OMP) report: We imaged the field of GRB 070508 detected by SWIFT (trigger 278854) with the TAROT robotic telescope (D=25cm) located at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla observatory, Chile. The observations started 829s after the GRB trigger (6s after the notice). The elevation of the field increased from from 28 degrees above horizon and weather conditions were good. The date of trigger : t0 = 2007-05-08T04:18:17.6 The first image is 90.0s exposure in tracking mode with no filter. We do not detect the UVOT candidate couterpart mentioned by Grupe et al. (GCNC 6383) with a limiting magnitude of: t0+829s to t0+919s : R > 17.8 We co-added a series of exposures with no filter: t0+829s to t0+1704s : R > 19.7 Magnitudes were estimated with the nearby USNO-B1 stars and are not corrected for galactic dust extinction. N.B. Galactic coordinates are lon=314.8792 lat=-32.4208 and the galactic extinction in R band is 0.1 magnitudes estimated from D. Schlegel et al. 1998ApJ...500..525S. This message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6385 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: REM observations DATE: 07/05/08 05:18:53 GMT FROM: Stefano Covino at Brera Astronomical Observatory S. Piranomonte, S. Covino, L.A. Antonelli, A. Burzi, L. Calzoletti, S. Campana, G. Chincarini, M.L. Conciatore, S. Cutini, P. D'Avanzo, V. D'Elia, F. Dalessio, F. Fiore, D. Fugazza, P. Goldoni, D. Guetta, C. Guidorzi, G.L. Israel, D. Malesani, N. Masetti, A. Melandri, E. Meurs, L. Nicastro, E. Palazzi, E. Pian, D. Rizzuto, L. Stella, G. Stratta, G. Tagliaferri, G. Tosti, V. Testa, S.D. Vergani, F. Vitali report on behalf of the REM team: We observed the field of the GRB 070508 (Grupe et al. GCN 6383) with the robotic 60-cm REM telescope located at La Silla (Chile). A set of observations was performed automatically in the optical and near infrared filters (V, R, I and J, H, K, z). Preliminary analysis of the first frames at 4:34:11 UT (~16 min after the burst, ~2 min after the BAT trigger) shows a marginal detection of the UVOT afterglow at H~15.2. Further observations are in progress. This message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6386 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: Optical afterglow detection DATE: 07/05/08 05:22:41 GMT FROM: Edo Berger at Carnegie Obs E. Berger (Carnegie) and A. Burgasser (MIT) report: "We observed the position of GRB 070508 (GCN 6383) with MAGIC on the Magellan/Clay 6.5 m telescope starting 28 min after the burst. In a 180 sec I-band image we detect a bright object not visible in DSS within the XRT error circle at: RA = 20:51:12.07 DEC = -78:23:07.0 with an uncertainty of about 0.5". This is about 2.5" away from the UVOT position." //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6387 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: Optical observation limiting magnitude DATE: 07/05/08 09:56:54 GMT FROM: Alan Gilmore at U of Canterbury,Mt John Obs A. C. Gilmore and P. M. Kilmartin (Mt John Observatory of the University of Canterbury) report: We stacked 20 x 120 second clear exposures of the GRB 070508 taken with a SBIG ST9e CCD on a 0.6 m f/6.4 reflector at Mt John Observatory. The exposure set was centred on May 8 07:49 UT (3.5 hours after the burst). Our images do not show any object at the coordinates given by Berger (GCN 6386) to a limiting R magnitude of approximately 20.5 based on USNO B1.0 stars. These observations were made as part of the AAVSO GRB Network, and supported by a grant from the Curry Foundation. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6388 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: Swift-XRT refined analysis DATE: 07/05/08 12:41:59 GMT FROM: Claudio Pagani at PSU/Swift-XRT D. Grupe, J. Racusin, & C. Pagani (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift/XRT team We have analyzed the first three orbits of GRB 070508 (Grupe et al., GCN 6383) with total observing times of 1.3 ks in Windowed Timing mode and 1.3 ks in Photon Counting mode in the Swift XRT. The Photon Counting mode image of the third orbit provides a refined XRT position at RA, DEC= 312.7993, -78.3848, which is RA(J2000) = 20h 51m 11.84s Dec(J2000) = -78d 23' 05.4" with an error of 5.6" (90% confidence). This position is 2.6" away from the preliminary XRT position reported in GCN 6383 and 1.9" from the optical position given in GCN 6386 (Berger & Burgasser). The XRT observations in Windowed Timing more started at the end of a flare and both Windowed timing and Photon Counting mode display the rapid decay of the afterglow with a decay slope of 1.15+/-0.11 measured from the PC data. The prediction 24h after the burst is a 0.3-10.0 keV flux of 3.2e-12 ergs/s/cm2 or about 0.04 XRT counts/s. The Windowed Timing mode data can be fitted by a single power law with a photon index Gamma=2.05+-0.04 and an absorption column density of NH=(3.8+/-0.2)e21cm-2. The Galactic absorption density in the direction of the burst is 8.60e20cm-2 (Dickey & Lockman, 1990). The PC data are consistent with this result. According to the relation given in Grupe et al. (2007, AJ, 133, 2216) the excess absorption suggests that the burst has a redshift of less than 2.6. This circular is an official product of the Swift XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6389 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: Multicolor optical observations and possible redshift limit DATE: 07/05/08 13:33:42 GMT FROM: Christina Thoene at Niels Bohr Institute,DARK Cosmo Ctr Christina C. Thoene, Johan P. U. Fynbo (DARK) and Andrew Williams (Perth Observatory) report: We observed the OT of GRB 070508 (GCN 6383, Grupe et al.) with DFOSC at the Danish 1.54m on La Silla in V, R and I band, starting at May 8, 08:15 UT (3.8h after the burst) until sunrise. The burst is clearly detected in 300s exposures in R and I band, but undetected in 600s V band images. At a mean time of 4.1h after the burst, we measure the following magnitudes (based on preliminary photometric zeropoints): I = 20.5 +- 0.2 R = 21.5 +- 0.2 V > 22.9 which indicates a red color. The nondetection in V together with the red color might suggest a redshift of z > 3.5. The afterglow is clearly fading between 3.8h and 5.8h after the burst, showing a rather steep temporal slope in the I band of alpha = 3.1 +-0.6. [GCN OPS NOTE(08may07): Per author's request, the word 'limit' was added to the Subject line.] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6390 SUBJECT: GRB 070508, Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 07/05/08 13:35:12 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), L. Barbier (GSFC), J. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), E. Fenimore (LANL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), D. Grupe (PSU), H. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), C. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD), D. Palmer (LANL), A. Parsons (GSFC), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/ORAU), G. Sato (GSFC/ISAS), M. Stamatikos (GSFC/ORAU), J. Tueller (GSFC) on behalf of the Swift-BAT team: Using the data set from T-240 to T+962 sec from recent telemetry downlinks, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 070508 (trigger #278854) (Grupe, et al., GCN Circ. 6383). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 312.832, -78.382 deg, which is RA(J2000) = 20h 51m 19.8s Dec(J2000) = -78d 22' 54.8" with an uncertainty of 0.4 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 62%. The mask-weighted lightcurve consists of ~20 main peaks (between T+0 and T+20 sec). The emission starts at ~T-20 sec and clearly extends out to T+30 sec and at a lesser level extends out past T+800 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 21 +- 1 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T-13.8 to T+33.1 is best fit by a power law with an exponential cutoff. This fit gives a photon index 1.14 +- 0.12, and Epeak of 258 +- 134 keV (chi squared 27.7 for 56 d.o.f.). For this model the total fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 2.0 +- 0.0 x 10^-5 erg/cm2 and the 1-sec peak flux measured from T+10.84 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 24.7 +- 0.6 ph/cm2/sec. A fit to a simple power law gives a photon index of 1.36 +- 0.03 (chi squared 38.4 for 57 d.o.f.). All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence level. We note that the TDRSS messages for this burst were delayed in transmission to the ground because the burst occurred at the beginning of an 11-minute Malindi downlink session. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6391 SUBJECT: GRB 070508, SMARTS optical afterglow observation DATE: 07/05/08 21:34:04 GMT FROM: Bethany Cobb at Yale U B. E. Cobb (Yale), part of the larger SMARTS consortium, reports: Using the ANDICAM instrument on the 1.3m telescope at CTIO, we obtained optical imaging of the error region of GRB 070508 (GCN 6383, Grupe et al.) with a mid-exposure time of 2007-05-08 06:25 UT (~2.1 hrs post-burst). The total summed exposure time amounted to 36 minutes in I. A source is detected at the UVOT afterglow coordinates (GRB 6383, Grupe et al.) with a magnitude of I=20.7+/-0.3, calibrated using USNO-B1.0 values. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6392 SUBJECT: GRB070508: Swift/UVOT Observations DATE: 07/05/08 22:24:16 GMT FROM: Frank Marshall at GSFC F.E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC) and D. Grupe (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: UVOT began observing GRB 070508 68s after the BAT trigger (Grupe et al., GCN Circ. 6383). A fading afterglow is detected in the White and V filters, while no afterglow is seen in the B, U, or UV filters. We use the first white exposure to obtain an improved position of RA(J2000) = 20h 51m 11.68s Dec(J2000) = -78d 23' 05.0" with a 90% confidence statistical uncertainty in each axis of 0.5". There is also a 1-sigma systematic uncertainty in the UVOT aspect solution of about 0.3". This revised position is 0.6" from the initial UVOT position reported by Grupe et al. and 2.3" from the position for the I-band object reported by Berger and Burgasser (GCN Circ. 6386). Thoene et al. (GCN Circ. 6389) have suggested a redshift of greater than 3.5 based on their detections in the I and R bands and lack of detection in V band. The UVOT detection in the V filter indicates a redshift of less than 5. Photometry results with statistical errors are given below for the 7 UVOT filters. The start and stop times (in seconds) are referenced to the trigger time, and the total exposure time (Exp.) is given in seconds. T_start T_stop Exp. Mag White 86 185 98 19.8+/-0.12 (1-sigma) V 192 571 393 19.7+/-0.22 (1-sigma) B 669 1946 86 >19.6 (90% confidence) U 644 1933 117 >18.4 (90% confidence) UVW1 620 7389 283 >18.2 (90% confidence) UWM2 1705 7215 236 >17.8 (90% confidence) UVW2 698 6806 294 >18.6 (90% confidence) No correction has been made for the expected Galactic reddening of E(B-V)=0.14 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6396 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: Suzaku/WAM observation of the prompt emission DATE: 07/05/09 07:19:38 GMT FROM: Takeshi Uehara at Hiroshima U T. Uehara, M. Ohno, T. Takahashi, Y. Fukazawa, C. Kira (Hiroshima U.), T. Enoto, R. Miyawaki, K. Nakawaza, K. Makishima (Univ. of Tokyo), K. Yamaoka, Y. E. Nakagawa, S. Sugita (Aoyama Gakuin U.), Y. Urata, K. Onda, M. Suzuki, K. Morigami, N. Kodaka, M. Tashiro (Saitama U.), M. Suzuki, T. Tamagawa, Y. Terada (RIKEN), S. Hong (Nihon U.), M. Kokubun, T. Takahashi (ISAS/JAXA), E. Sonoda, M.Yamauchi (Univ. of Miyazaki), and Suzaku WAM team report The bright, long burst, GRB 070508 (Swift/BAT trigger #278854 ; D. Grupe et al., GCN Circ. 6383 ), was detected at 04:18:21 UT (=T0) by the Suzaku Wide-band All-sky Monitor (WAM) which covers an energy range of 50 keV - 5 MeV. The observed light curve shows multiple peaked structures with a duration (T90) of nearly 12 seconds. The fluence in 100-1000 keV was (3.0+/-0.1) * 10^-5 erg/cm^2. The 1-s peak flux was 11.6+/-0.5 photons/cm^2/s in the same energy range. Preliminary result shows that the time-averaged spectrum from T0-4 to T0+26 s can be described by a power law with an exponential cutoff model, in the 100 keV - 1000 keV range as follows: dN/dE = E^{-alpha} * exp(-(2-alpha)*E/Epeak) with alpha = 0.96 +/- 0.21 and Epeak = 233 +/- 12 keV (chi^2/d.o.f. = 29/20). All the quoted errors are at statistical 90% confidence level, in which the systematic uncertainties are not included. The WAM light curve of this event is available at http://www.astro.isas.ac.jp/suzaku/HXD-WAM/WAM-GRB/grb/trig/grb_table.html //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6398 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: OA fading and tentative redshift DATE: 07/05/09 15:11:02 GMT FROM: Pall Jakobsson at U Hertfordshire Pall Jakobsson (U. Hertfordshire), Johan P. U. Fynbo (DARK, NBI), Michael I. Andersen (Potsdam), Andreas O. Jaunsen (U. Oslo), Christina C. Thoene, Darach Watson, Jens Hjorth, Bo Milvang-Jensen (DARK, NBI), Nial R. Tanvir (U. Leicester) and P. Moller (ESO) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: Using FORS1 on the Very Large Telescope, we have obtained 3*30 min spectra (grism 300V) of GRB 070508 (Grupe et al., GCN 6383). The UVOT optical afterglow candidate (Marshall & Grupe, GCN 6392) has clearly faded in our acquisition image. Using photometric zeropoints from the ESO webpages we estimate the afterglow magnitude to be R ~ 22.0 on May 8.337 (3.79 hours post-burst). The combined spectrum does not display any obvious absorption features. However, a firm upper limit of z < 2.3 can be placed on the redshift of GRB 070508 from the lack of Ly-alpha forest lines in the spectrum of the afterglow. This is consistent with the UVOT observations (Marshall & Grupe, GCN 6392). We do detect a tentative emission line at 6781 A. If it corresponds to H-alpha at z = 0.033, we would expect to detect H-beta and the [O III] doublet in our spectrum. However, no features are visible at their predicted locations. The most probable association is with [O II] 3728, corresponding to a redshift of z = 0.82. We caution that the magnitude reported above is then most likely affected by host galaxy emission. We thank the Paranal staff for excellent support. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6399 SUBJECT: RHESSI Spectrum of GRB070508 DATE: 07/05/09 19:35:36 GMT FROM: Eric Bellm at UCB/SSL E. Bellm, C. Wigger, M. Bandstra, S. Boggs, W. Hajdas, D. M. Smith, and K. Hurley on behalf of the RHESSI team report: As observed by RHESSI, GRB070508 (Grupe et al., GCN 6383) had a duration of ~18 s starting at about T0=04:18:20 UT. RHESSI detected significant emission up to ~300 keV. The preliminary fit to the time-integrated RHESSI spectrum from T0 - T0+16 s between 30 keV and 10 MeV is a cutoff power law with alpha = -0.76 +0.52/-0.41 Epeak = 254 +71/-45 keV (90% confidence levels). The 30 keV-10 MeV fluence is 1.95 +0.28/-0.23 E-5 erg/cm^2. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6403 SUBJECT: Konus-Wind and Konus-A observation of GRB 070508 DATE: 07/05/10 14:54:51 GMT FROM: Valentin Pal'shin at Ioffe Inst S. Golenetskii, R.Aptekar, E. Mazets, V. Pal'shin, D. Frederiks, P. Oleynik, M. Ulanov and T. Cline on behalf of the Konus-Wind and Konus-A teams report: The long bright GRB 070508 (Swift-BAT trigger #278854: Grupe et al., GCN 6383; Barthelmy et al., GCN 6390), triggered Konus-Wind at T0=15502.779 s UT (04:18:22.779). This burst also triggered Konus-A at T0=15503.790 s UT (04:18:23.790) The burst started at T-T0 ~-13 s and had a duration of ~40 s. As observed by Konus-Wind the burst had a fluence of 3.97(-0.23, +0.07)x10^-5 erg/cm2, and a 64-ms peak flux measured from T0+8.832 s 8.30(-1.11, +1.03)x10^-6 erg/cm2/s (both in the 20 keV - 1 MeV energy range). The burst shows strong spectral evolution. The time-integrated spectrum of the burst (from T0 to T0+27.904 s) can be fitted (in the 25 keV - 1 MeV range) by a power law with exponential cutoff model: dN/dE ~ E^(-alpha)*exp(-E*(2-alpha)/Ep) with alpha = 0.81 +/- 0.07 and Ep = 188 +/- 8 keV (chi2 = 65/52 dof). Assuming z = 0.82 (Jakobsson et al., GCN 6398) and a standard cosmology model with H_0 = 70 km/s/Mpc, Omega_M = 0.3, Omega_\Lambda = 0.7, the isotropic bolometric energy release is E_iso ~7.0x10^52 erg, and the maximum bolometric luminosity is (L_iso)_max ~1.1x10^53 erg/s. All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence level. The Konus-Wind light curve of this GRB is available at http://www.ioffe.rssi.ru/LEA/GRBs/GRB070508_T15502/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6405 SUBJECT: GRB 070508: pseudo-z from 4 different spectral analyses DATE: 07/05/10 16:34:08 GMT FROM: Alexandre Pelangeon at LATT,OMP,Toulouse A. Pelangeon & J-L. Atteia (LATT-OMP) report: The intense burst GRB 070508 detected by SWIFT-BAT (Grupe et al., GCNC 6383) was also observed by other spacecrafts. Thanks to the published spectral parameters obtained from the different spectral analyses performed, we have computed 4 pseudo-redshift(**) for this burst. Here are the results (the errors on the pseudo-z are at the 90% c.l.): - From the spectral parameters obtained with the Konus-WIND data (Golenetskii et al., GCNC 6403) we obtain: pz = 1.15 +/- 0.15 - From the spectral parameters obtained with the Swift-BAT data (Barthelmy et al., GCNC 6390; Grupe et al., GCNR 54.1) we obtain: pz = 1.06 +/- 0.30 - From the spectral parameters obtained with the Suzaku-WAM data (Uehara et al., GCNC 6396) we obtain: pz = 1.25 +/- 0.30 - From the spectral parameters obtained with the RHESSI data (Bellm et al., GCNC 6399) we obtain: pz = 2.53 +/- 1.40 These values are compatible with the spectroscopic redshift z=0.82 derived by Jakobsson et al. (GCNC 6398). (**) cf. http://www.ast.obs-mip.fr/grb/pz