{
  "bibcode": "2005GCN..3605....1P",
  "body": "P.A. Price (IfA, Hawaii), K. Roth (Gemini), and D.W. Fox (Caltech)\nreport on behalf of a larger collaboration:\n\nWe have observed a candidate host galaxy of GRB 050709 with the Gemini\nNorth telescope and GMOS spectrograph at 2005 July 13.58 UT.  The\nobservations were made under clouds, at high airmass, and with morning\ntwilight interfering with the some of the observations.\n\nThe source acquired is the brighter of the two sources reported by\nJensen et al. (GCN #3589; \"Source B\").  The long slit likely does not\ncover the position of the fainter of the two sources which is coincident\nwith the Chandra source (\"Source A\").\n\nWe have reduced 2x900 sec integrations and identify emission lines at\napproximate observed wavelengths of 7617A and 5810A which we associate\nwith Halpha and [O III]5007 at an approximate redshift of z = 0.16.\nFainter emission lines are observed at 5754A and 5641A, corresponding to\n[O III]4959 and Hbeta, and thus we believe the redshift is secure.\n\nIf source A is the afterglow of GRB 050709, then it is seen in\nprojection about 3 kpc from Source B, suggesting that Source B may be\nthe host galaxy.  The similarity of this case with the previous\npotential association of the short/hard GRB 050509B with a low-redshift\ngalaxy (Bloom et al., GCN #3386) is suggestive.  If GRB 050709 is at z =\n0.16, then the isotropic-equivalent energy release is about 6 x 10^49\nerg (based on Butler et al., GCN #3570).\n\nA definitive measurement of the distance scale to short/hard GRBs awaits\nthe demonstration of variability of the X-ray or optical emission.  We\nencourage deep observations to ascertain the nature of Source A and, in\nparticular, to search for variability.\n\n\n\nWe thank the staff of the Gemini North telescope for outstanding support\nfor these observations.",
  "circularId": 3605,
  "createdOn": 1121297555000,
  "email": "price@ifa.hawaii.edu",
  "subject": "GRB 050709: Spectroscopy",
  "submitter": "Paul Price at IfA,UH  <price@ifa.hawaii.edu>",
  "eventId": "GRB 050709"
}