{
  "version": 2,
  "editedBy": "Judith Racusin at NASA/GSFC <judith.racusin@nasa.gov> on behalf of Daniele Bjørn Malesani at Cosmic Dawn Center, Niels Bohr Institute <daniele.malesani@nbi.ku.dk>",
  "submittedHow": "web",
  "body": "A. Martin-Carrillo (UCD), A. J. Levan (Radboud), B. Schneider (LAM), J. An (NAOC), D. Xu (NAOC), S. Campana (INAF-OAB), G. Corcoran (UCD), P. G. Jonker (Radboud), D. B. Malesani (DAWN/NBI and Radboud) report on behalf of the Stargate collaboration:\n\nWe observed the location of EP250702a (Cheng et al., GCNs 40906, 40917) likely associated with GRB 250702B,C,D,E detected by Fermi/GBM (Fermi GBM Team, GCNs 40883, 40885, 40886, 40890), Swift/BAT (via the GUANO system; DeLaunay et al., GCN 40903) and Konus/Wind (Frederiks et al., GCN 40914), all likely originating from the same astrophysical source (Neights et al., GCN 40891). We used the ESO VLT UT4 (Yepun) equipped with the HAWK-I near-infrared camera. We obtained two 20 min exposures in each of the H and K bands, starting on 2025 July 3 at 07:03:03 UT (17.1 hr after the first Fermi trigger, GRB 250702B).\n\nAt the location of the UVOT-enhanced (2\" radius) coordinates provided by Swift/XRT (Kennea et al., GCN 40919) we identify a bright source not visible in archival H and K images from VISTA/VHS and UKIDSS at the following coordinates (J2000):\n\nRA (J2000) = 18:58:45.57\nDec (J2000) = -07:52:26.2\n\nwith an uncertainty of ~0.5\" in each axis. The source has a magnitude of K ~ 17.3 (Vega), calibrated against 2MASS stars.\n\nWe note that, while the source is dominated by point-like emission, it appears to be extended along the E-W direction. As this is a crowded field, this could be just the result of source confusion. Alternatively, if the extension is real, it could be related to nebulosity around a Galactic source, or be a distant host galaxy which would imply an extragalactic origin for GRBs 250702B,C,D,E / EP250702a.\n\nFurther observations are planned and encouraged to reveal the nature of this unusual gamma-ray burster.\n\nWe acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff in Paranal, in particular Marco Berton, Robert Klement, Susana Cerda-Hernandez, Thomas Rivinius, and Thomas Szeifert.",
  "circularId": 40924,
  "editedOn": 1751732233286,
  "bibcode": "2025GCN.40924....1M",
  "createdOn": 1751566636268,
  "format": "text/plain",
  "eventId": "EP250702a",
  "submitter": "Antonio Martin-Carrillo at UCD,Space Science Group <antonio.martin-carrillo@ucd.ie>",
  "subject": "GRBs 250702B,C,D,E / EP250702a: VLT/HAWK-I NIR candidate"
}