GCN Circular 19154
Subject
GRB 160303A: X-shooter spectroscopy
Date
2016-03-06T02:22:25Z (8 years ago)
From
Antonio de Ugarte Postigo at IAA-CSIC <deugarte@iaa.es>
A. de Ugarte Postigo (IAA-CSIC, DARK/NBI), D. Malesani (DARK/NBI),
T. Kruehler (MPE Garching), D. Xu (NAOC/CAS), S. Schulze (PUC, MAS),
J. Hjorth (DARK/NBI), N.R. Tanvir (U. Leicester) report on behalf of a
larger collaboration:
We observed the afterglow of GRB 160303A (Beardmore et al.,
GCN 19126; Butler et al., GCN 19131) with ESO���s Very Large Telescope
UT2 equipped with X-shooter (Paranal Observatory, Chile). The spectra
cover the range from 3000 to 18000 AA. Observations consisted of 4x1200s
exposures, starting at 06:03 UT of 4 March 2016 (18.8 hr after the GRB
onset).
The spectrum was obtained when the GRB was at r ~ 24.1 (Klose et al.
GCN 19142) and hence the S/N is rather low, implying that no absorption
feature can be identified. In spite of this, a trace can be seen in the
complete UVB (3000-5600AA) and VIS (5600-10100 AA) spectra. The
continuum is rather blue, as already seen from multiband photometry
(Butler et al., GCN 19131; Graham et al., GCN 19144). The detection of the
trace down to 3000 AA implies a redshift limit of < 2.3 (considering that the
Lyman break is not within the range).
In spite of the deep spectrum, we have not been able to identify any emission
feature, which could be indicative of a very faint galaxy and/or a non star
forming galaxy (which would be expected for a SGRB).
We acknowledge excellent support from the Paranal staff.