{
  "bibcode": "2008GCN..8372....1C",
  "body": "A. Cucchiara, D. B. Fox (Penn State), S. B. Cenko  (Berkeley) and E. Berger\n(Harvard) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:\n\n\"Analysis of the Gemini-South GMOS r-band acquisition image taken on \nOctober 8\n(Cucchiara et al., 8346) shows the presence of an extended source at \n2-arcsec\ndistance from the afterglow of GRB 081008.  The source is serendipitously\nlocated in the GMOS slit during our spectroscopic observations.\n\nExtracting the spectrum of this object reveals the presence of metal \nabsorption\nfeatures including FeII(1608), AlII(1670), NiII(1703), AlIII(1854), and\nCrII(2056,2062,2066) at a common redshift z=1.967.  We conclude that this\ngalaxy is associated with the strong z=1.967 absorber observed in the GRB\nafterglow spectrum, and is a candidate host galaxy to the GRB.\n\nThe galaxy is located at (J2000) RA 18:39:49.64, Dec -57:25:53.41.  At \nz=1.967\nits 2.1-arcsec offset from the line of sight to GRB 081008 corresponds \nto 16 kpc\nin projection.\n\nWe report the R-band magnitude of the GRB and the Host, calibrated using \nUSNO\ncatalog magnitudes of 4 nearby USNO stars:  At the time of the \nacquisition image,\n00:01 UT, we find R=18.32 +- 0.1 mag for the GRB afterglow, and R=20.75 \n+- 0.1\nmag for the galaxy.\n\nThe observed host galaxy magnitude corresponds to an absolute AB \nmagnitude (at\ncentral wavelength 220 nm in the host galaxy frame) of M_220(AB) = -21.5 \nmag;\nassuming a comparable rest-frame B-band luminosity would place this galaxy\namong the brightest GRB host galaxies if it is the host galaxy of GRB 081008\n(Berger et al., Apj 2007, 657).\n\nWhile we cannot confirm a host identification at this time, we note that the\npresence of an associated DLA in the VLT/FORS2 spectrum (d'Avanzo et al.,\nGCN 8350), along with the reported absence of any absorption signature due\nto neutral hydrogen at z>1.967, both support this suggestion.\"\n\n\n-- \n\nAntonino Cucchiara\nPhD candidate\nDepartment of Astronomy&Astrophysics\nPenn State University\nwebsite: www.astro.psu.edu/~cucchiara/",
  "circularId": 8372,
  "createdOn": 1223943452000,
  "email": "cucchiara@astro.psu.edu",
  "subject": "GRB 081008: Galaxy associated with z=1.967 absorber",
  "submitter": "Antonino Cucchiara at PSU  <cucchiara@astro.psu.edu>",
  "eventId": "GRB 081008"
}