GCN Circular 9841
Subject
GRB090817: Keck/LRIS Spectroscopy
Date
2009-08-26T08:22:47Z (15 years ago)
From
S. Bradley Cenko at Caltech <cenko@srl.caltech.edu>
S. B. Cenko, L. M. Walkowicz (UC Berkeley), M. M. Kasliwal, V. Bhalero, S.
R. Kulkarni, F. A. Harrison (Caltech), I. Arcavi (Weizmann Institute) and
W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
We have obtained a spectrum of the putative host galaxy of GRB09817
(Holland et al., GCNs 9831 and 9834) with the Low Resolution Imaging
Spectrometer mounted on the 10 m Keck I telescope. Our spectra were taken
in twilight conditions at Aug 25.55 UT and cover a wavelength range from
3500 - 9000 A.
After correcting for the large Galactic extinction, the source exhibits
a blue continuum with superposed absorption features from the H Balmer
series (H-alpha, -beta, -gamma, and -delta) and Ca (H+K and the NIR
triplet), all consistent with their rest wavelengths. As suggested by
Halpern and Ruan (GCN 9837), the object is therefore a foreground star
(likely a hot, ~ A-type) and likely unrelated to GRB090817.