TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1306 SUBJECT: GRB020127: Proposed Host Galaxy Detection and Identification of Afterglow DATE: 02/03/24 21:43:30 GMT FROM: Derek Fox at CIT D.W. Fox, S.G. Djorgovski, and S.R. Kulkarni (Caltech) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: "We have imaged the area surrounding Source A14 of GCN 1249, a candidate X-ray afterglow for the dark burst GRB020127, using the Echelle Spectrograph and Imager (ESI) on the Keck-II telescope. In a summed R-band image with 45 minutes total exposure in subarcsecond seeing on March 13.3 (UT) we detect an extended object that we suggest is the host galaxy of this GRB. The corresponding X-ray source A14 may in this case be identified as the likely X-ray afterglow of GRB020127, which is therefore located at: RA = 08 15 01.42, Dec = +36 46 33.9 (J2000) with an uncertainty of roughly 1". A smoothed image of a portion of the ESI field may be found at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~derekfox/grb020127/ESI_Rsum.gif In light of this proposed identification, we suggest as well that the coincident weak radio source reported in GCN 1250 was the radio afterglow of this GRB."