GCN Circular 3212
Subject
GRB 050408: Properties of the Host Galaxy
Date
2005-04-10T00:57:26Z (19 years ago)
From
Don Lamb at U.Chicago <lamb@oddjob.uchicago.edu>
GRB 050408: Properties of the Host Galaxy
D. Q. Lamb, D. G. York, and D. E. Reichart report:
The field of GRB 050408 (Sakamoto, et al., GCN Circular 3189) has been
observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the data is publicly
available as part of Data Release 3. Examination of the SDSS image
of the field of GRB 050408 reveals a galaxy at
RA = (180.57109 deg), Dec = (+10.85051 degree),
coincident with the optical afterglow of GRB 050408. The magnitudes
of the galaxy are u = 23.49, g = 23.30, r = 22.37, i = 21.95, and z =
21.39, with errors of +/- 0.01 mag, with the exception of the z band
where the uncertainty is somewhat larger.
These results suggest that light from the host galaxy may contribute
significantly to the optical magnitudes reported for the optical
afterglow of GRB 050408 as early as ~10 hours after the burst. This
implies that continued Swift XRT observations of the X-ray afterglow
of GRB 050408 (e.g., Wells et al., GCN Circular 3191; Chincharini et
al. 3209) may be the only way of determining the light curve, and
therefore the jet break time, for the afterglow of this burst.
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