GCN Circular 2472

GRB 031203: Further reports on December 4 observations

J. S. Bloom (Harvard/CfA), C. Bailyn, and P. van Dokkum (Yale) report
on behalf of the larger SMARTS collaboration:

"The object inside the first XMM error circle (Santos-Lleo & Calderon,
GCN #2464) reported in Hsia et al. (GCN #2470) is unlikely to be
related to GRB 031203 (Gotz GCN #2459) by two accounts. First, as
reported in Bailyn et al. (GCN #2468), the source did not vary by more
than 0.1 magnitudes from about 4 to 7 hours after the GRB, as is the
case for all sources I<22 mag in the XMM error boxes. Second, the
source is present in the DSS-II scan of the F-plate image (dated 18
March 1991).  We also clarify that both the REM and the ANDICAM
positions lie outside the nominal 6 arcsec error radius of the first
XMM source."
   For finding charts, see http://www-cfa.harvard.edu/~jbloom/grb031203

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