GCN Circular 698

Stephen Holland, Johan Fynbo, Bjarne Thomsen (University of Aarhus),
Michael Andersen (University of Oulu),
Gunnlaugur Bjornsson (University of Iceland),
Jens Hjorth (University of Copenhagen),
Andreas Jaunsen (University of Oslo),
Priya Natarajan (Univeristy of Cambridge, & Yale), and
Nial Tanvir (University of Hertfordshire)

	We have initiated a survey of the host galaxies of gamma-ray
bursts (GRBs) using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the
Hubble Space Telescope.  The data will consist of deep images of the
host galaxies of eleven GRBs taken at least one year after the GRB
occurred.  We have waived the normal one-year proprietary period for
this data, and we will make drizzled images available to the
astronomical community.  The web site for the Survey of the Host
Galaxies of Gamma-Ray Bursts is
"http://www.ifa.au.dk/~hst/grb_hosts/index.html".

	We have obtained 8983 seconds of STIS images taken with the
50CCD (clear) aperture of GRB 980519.  A combined image is now
available at "http://www.ifa.au.dk/~hst/grb_hosts/data/index.html".
This data was taken approximately 750 days after the burst.  We find
two small galaxies within approximately 1.5 arcseconds of the GRB.
The bright galaxy has an AB magnitude of 27.0 +/- 0.1 in the STIS
50CCD (clear) aperture while the fainter galaxy, which we presume to
be the host, has an AB magnitude of 28.0 +/- 0.3.  The total flux from
both objects agrees with the Kron-Cousins R-band magnitudes measured
by Hjorth et al. (1999, A&AS, 138, 461), Sokolov et al. (1998, GCNC
148), and Bloom et al. (1998, GCNC 149) if the combined colour of the
two galaxies is V-R = 0.8 +/- 0.4.  The GRB occurred approximately 0.7
arcseconds to the north of the centre of the faint galaxy.  The bright
galaxy shows some signs of a barred spiral structure.  The central
regions have a full-width at half-maximum (after correcting for the
point spread function) of ~0.06 arcseconds.  The faint galaxy is
elongated with an ellipticity of ~0.3 and a major axis of ~1
arcsecond.