GCN Circular 2477

XMM-Newton Observation of GRB031203

P. Rodriguez-Pascual, M. Santos-Lleo, R. Gonzalez-Riestra, 
N. Schartel, B. Altieri report:

Preliminary analysis of the XMM-Newton raw data of 
the GRB031203 field (D. Gotz et al. GCN 2459
Not found
 
 
), based 
on the fully accumulated 56.3 ks exposure time in the 
EPIC pn camera, confirms the two sources reported by 
M. Santos-Lleo and P. Calderon (GCN 2464
Not found
 
 
). The 
observation was performed under optimal environmental 
conditions and is basically free from solar background 
flares.

XMMU J080230.3-395101, (S1 in GCN 2464
Not found
 
 
) shows a decrease 
of the pn count rate from approximately 0.075 counts/sec 
(at start of observation) to approximately 0.05 
counts/sec (at end of observation) within an extraction 
radius of 30 arcsec.
There are very few counts in low-energy channels
(below approximately 0.9 keV) which may be explained 
by the Galactic absorption. 

XMMU J080220.8-395213 (S2 in GCN 2464
Not found
 
 
) might also show
evidence for a decrease in flux, but the current 
processing status of the data does not allow proper
quantification.

In addition to the two sources reported in GCN 2464
Not found
 
 
 
several weaker sources are visible in the data taken
during the 56.3 ks exposure time. The following sources
are located in the INTEGRAL error circle:

XMM-Newton Source       counts          distance   in 
                                        to centre  GCN 
                        [1/sec]         [arcsec]   2464
-----------------------------------------------------
XMMU J080230.3-395101   0.057+/-0.0012   13         S1 
XMMU J080220.8-395213   0.018+/-0.001   135         S2
XMMU J080226.0-394955   0.003+/-0.001    69 
XMMU J080230.7-395239   0.002+/-0.001   110  
XMMU J080233.4-395150   0.003+/-0.001    73 
XMMU J080238.2-395150   0.001+/-0.0007  112  
XMMU J080239.4-395052   0.002+/-0.001   108 
-----------------------------------------------------

The following sources fall on the border of the INTEGRAL 
error circle:

XMM-Newton Source       counts          distance 
                                        to centre 
                        [1/sec]         [arcsec]  
------------------------------------------------
XMMU J080234.3-394839   0.003+/-0.001   137
XMMU J080241.7-394944   0.002+/-0.001   149
------------------------------------------------

The following source falls just outside the INTEGRAL 
error circle:

XMM-Newton Source       counts          distance 
                                        to centre 
                        [1/sec]         [arcsec]  
------------------------------------------------
XMMU J080226.6-395334   0.003+/-0.001   170
------------------------------------------------

At this stage of the data processing the position error
for the weaker sources is of the order of 10 arcsec.

The XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre plans to
make preliminary images available on a dedicated web
page by the middle of next week.