GCN Circular 6046
Subject
GRB 070126: VLT observations
Date
2007-01-28T12:00:08Z (18 years ago)
From
Daniele Malesani at Niels Bohr Inst,Dark Cosmology Center <malesani@astro.ku.dk>
D. Malesani (Dark/NBI), P.M. Vreeswijk (ESO), P. Jakobsson (Herfordshire),
J.P.U. Fynbo (Dark/NBI), report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
We observed the field of the faint GRB 070126 (Vetere et al., GCN 6027)
with the ESO VLT + FORS2 on 2006 Jan 26.17 UT (1.52 hr after the GRB).
Short exposures (~1 min) were acquired in BVRIz. Inside the XRT error
circle (Vetere \& Racusin, GCN 6045) we detect a single, extended source,
which is present in the USNO-B1 catalog and in the DSS images, at the
coordinates (0.5" error):
RA(J2000) = 02:14:10.03
Dec(J2000) = -73:32:05.7
Given the lack of evidence for variability of the X-ray source, the
possible association of this galaxy with the GRB or the X-ray source is at
present unclear.
Our images cover ~80% of the refined BAT error circle (Fenimore et al.,
GCN 6040). No new sources brighter than the DSS limits (R~20.5) are seen
across the whole observed region.
We acknowledge excellent support from the ESO staff at Paranal, in
particular Hugues Sana, Thomas Rivinius, Leonardo Vanzi and Dominique
Naef.