GCN Circular 8766
Subject
GRB 090102: NOT redshift
Date
2009-01-02T09:29:37Z (15 years ago)
From
Pall Jakobsson at U Hertfordshire <P.Jakobsson@herts.ac.uk>
Antonio de Ugarte Postigo (ESO), Pall Jakobsson (U. Iceland),
Daniele Malesani, Johan P. U. Fynbo (DARK/NBI), Elaine Simpson
and Susana Barros (Queen's University Belfast) report:
We observed the field of GRB 090102 (Mangano et al., GCN 8762)
with the NOT/ALFOSC starting on Jan 2 at 03:33 (38 minutes after
the burst onset). The optical afterglow detected by Klotz et al.
(GCN 8761) and Mangano et al. is detected with R ~ 19.6 (based on
unfiltered images) at the following coordinates (J2000, 0.5" error):
RA: 08:32:58.54
Dec.: +33:06:51.1
A 45-min low-resolution spectrum was also obained (2 hours post
burst). A firm upper limit of z < 2.1 can be placed on the
redshift of GRB 090102 from the lack of Ly-alpha forest lines in
the spectrum of the afterglow.
The spectrum also displays several metal lines, including Fe II,
Mg II, Mg I, Al II, Al III and C IV, at a redshift of z = 1.547.
No other significant lines are visible. We therefore conclude
that z = 1.547 is the redshift of GRB 090102.