GCN Circular 368

GRB990705: Intriguing Positional Coincidences

S. G. Djorgovski, S. R. Kulkarni, F. A. Harrison, J. S. Bloom (Caltech),
D. A. Frail (NRAO), M. Feroci, L. Piro, E. Costa, and F. Frontera 
(for the BeppoSAX team), report on behalf of the Caltech-NRAO-BeppoSAX 
GRB collaboration:

We note that GRB990705 (BeppoSAX mail # 99/16 and 99/17) is seen in 
projection at the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud.  The nearest
catalogued LMC object (on the sky) is a planetary nebula MPGN LMC 25,
which is about 17 arcmin away (and well outside the SAX X-ray error circle).
If the burst is indeed located in the LMC or its halo, a search for a 
neutrino signal coincident with, or just prior to the GRB even would be 
most interesting.  

We also note that an IRAS source, IRAS 05110-7208, which is positionally
coincident with a bright (~ 8.8 mag each), close double star on the DSS, 
is located near the edge of the current x-ray error circle, about 96 arcsec 
E and 204 arcsec N of the nominal x-ray center.  It is not yet known if
this double star / IRAS source is in the LMC or in our Galaxy.

If the GRB event was in the LMC or even closer, it may even represent a 
new type of a GRB phenomenon.

This note can be cited.