{
  "bibcode": "2025GCN.43252....1L",
  "body": "S. Lanava (PSU), S. Dichiara (PSU) and R. Gupta (NASA GSFC) report on\nbehalf of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Team:\n\nAt 01:21:41 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and\nlocated GRB 251230A (trigger=1429020).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst.\nThe BAT on-board calculated location is \nRA, Dec 179.894, +11.415 which is \n   RA(J2000) = 11h 59m 35s\n   Dec(J2000) = +11d 24' 55\"\nwith an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including \nsystematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a multiple-peaked\nstructure with a duration of about 80 sec. The peak count rate\nwas ~5000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~30 sec after the trigger.\n\nThe XRT began observing the field at 01:22:49.3 UT, 68.1 seconds after\nthe BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright,\nfading, uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec\n179.89781, 11.43828 which is equivalent to:\n   RA(J2000)  = 11h 59m 35.47s\n   Dec(J2000) = +11d 26' 17.8\"\nwith an uncertainty of 1.9 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This\nlocation is 84 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT\nerror circle. This position may be improved as more data are received;\nthe latest position is available at https://www.swift.ac.uk/sper. \n\nA power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event\ndata gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (1.88 x\n10^20 cm^-2, Willingale et al. 2013), with an excess column of 4.4\n(+1.47/-1.34) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence). \n\nThe initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 4.73e-09 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10\nkeV).\n\nUVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter\nstarting 76 seconds after the BAT trigger. There is a candidate afterglow in\nthe rapidly available 2.7'x2.7' sub-image at\n  RA(J2000)  =\t11:59:35.42 = 179.89760\n  DEC(J2000) = +11:26:19.3  =  11.43870\nwith a 90%-confidence error radius of about 0.74 arc sec. This position is 4.7\narc sec. from the center of the XRT error circle. The estimated magnitude is\n13.74 with a 1-sigma error of about  0.14. No correction has been made for the\nexpected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.024.\n\nBurst Advocate for this burst is S. Lanava (sml7284 AT psu.edu).\nPlease contact the BA by email if you require additional information\nregarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after\ntrying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see\nSwift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/)\n\n",
  "subject": "GRB 251230A: Swift detection of a burst with a bright optical counterpart",
  "createdOn": 1767059336823,
  "eventId": "GRB 251230A",
  "submittedHow": "email",
  "circularId": 43252,
  "submitter": "Simone Dichiara at Pennsylvania State University <sbd5667@psu.edu>"
}