GCN Circular 42649
Subject
GRB 251106B: Glowbug gamma-ray detection of a likely short burst
Event
Date
2025-11-12T15:46:47Z (16 hours ago)
From
richard.s.woolf.civ@us.navy.mil
Via
Web form
R. Woolf, C.C. Cheung, M. Kerr, J.E. Grove (NRL), A. Goldstein (USRA), C.A. Wilson-Hodge, D. Kocevski (MSFC), and M.S. Briggs (UAH) report:
The Glowbug gamma-ray telescope [1,2,3], operating on the International Space Station, reports the detection of GRB 251106B, which was also detected by SVOM/GRM (GCN 42612) and Insight-HXMT/HE (GCN 42633).
Using an adaptive window with a resolution of 32-ms, the burst onset is determined to be 2025-11-06 18:14:42.936 with a duration of 1.02 s and a total significance of about 7.3 sigma. The light curve comprises two primary peaks within 1-s duration. Note that data from ~T0 to T0+2.2s and ~T0+3s to T0+5.2s suffered from deadtime in various detectors.
The analysis results presented here are preliminary and use a response function that lacks a detailed characterization of the surrounding passive structure of the ISS.
Glowbug is a NASA-funded technology demonstrator for sensitive, low-cost gamma-ray transient telescopes developed, built, and operated by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) with support from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, USRA, and NASA MSFC. It was launched on 2023 March 15 aboard the Department of Defense Space Test Program’s STP-H9 to the ISS and operated until 2024 April when it was put in safe storage on orbit. Glowbug was removed from storage and resumed operation on 2025 September 12.
[1] Grove, J.E. et al. 2020, Proc. Yamada Conf. LXXI, arXiv:2009.11959
[2] Woolf, R.S. et al. 2022, Proc. SPIE, 12181, id. 121811O
[3] Woolf, R.S. et al. 2024, Proc. SPIE, 13151, id. 1315108
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