GCN Circular 7386
Subject
GRB 080310, SMARTS optical/IR afterglow observations
Event
Date
2008-03-10T09:48:46Z (18 years ago)
From
Bethany Cobb at Yale U <cobb@astro.yale.edu>
B. E. Cobb, part of the larger SMARTS consortium, reports:
Using the ANDICAM instrument on the 1.3m telescope at CTIO, we
obtained optical/IR imaging of the error region of GRB 080310
(GCN 7382, Cummings et al.) beginning 20 minutes post-burst
(2008-03-10 08:58 UT). Total summed exposure times amounted
to 180s in BRIYJK and 120s in H and V.
The afterglow of GRB 080310 (GCN 7382, Cummings et al. & GCN 7383,
Chornock et al.) is detected in our images. Preliminary comparison to
USNO-B1.0 stars in I and 2MASS stars in J indicates the following
afterglow magnitudes:
time post-burst I mag J mag
~25 minutes 16.3+/-0.2 15.9+/-0.2
The afterglow fades by ~0.4 magnitudes in I between 25 and 45 minutes
post-burst. This source is therefore confirmed to
be the afterglow of GRB 080310, with a decay rate of alpha ~ -0.6.