TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  6665
SUBJECT: GRB070724: Host galaxy redshift
DATE:    07/07/25 10:23:16 GMT
FROM:    Antonino Cucchiara at PSU  <cucchiara@astro.psu.edu>

A. Cucchiara, D. B. Fox (Penn State), S. B. Cenko (Caltech), E. Berger 
(Carnegie),
P. A. Price (IfA) and J. Radomski (Gemini) report on behalf of a larger 
collaboration:


Starting on 2007 July 25 at 06:40 UT we used GMOS on the Gemini South
telescope to obtain a set of 900 seconds spectra of the host galaxy of 
GRB070724
(Ziaeepour et al., GCN 6654).  
The covered wavelength  range is ~5000-9000 A.

We found strong evidence of emission lines identified as [O II] 3727, 
Hbeta and
[O III] 4959,5007 doublet at redshift z=0.457.  
This confirms the low-redshift nature
of the host galaxy for this short burst as noted by Bloom et al. (GCN 6658).


We wish to thank and acknowledge the effort of the staff at Gemini South
in undertaking these observations.