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GRB 050712

GCN Circular 3573

Subject
GRB 050712: Swift detection of a weak burst
Date
2005-07-12T15:04:45Z (20 years ago)
From
David Burrows at PSU/Swift <dxb15@psu.edu>
D. Grupe (PSU), S. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. Cummings, (GSFC/NRC),
H. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), C. Markwardt, (GSFC/UMD), D. Palmer (LANL),
T. Sakamoto (GSFC), D. Burrows, J. Nousek, A. Falcone, C. Gronwall (PSU),
T. Poole, A. Blustin (MSSL), and N. Gehrels (GSFC) on behalf of the Swift team:


At 14:00:27.51 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located
on-board GRB050712 (trigger=145581).  The spacecraft slewed immediately.
The flight-determined location is RA,Dec 77.693,+64.899 {+05h 10m 46s,+64d 
53' 56"} (J2000) with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, stat+sys).  The 
burst lightcurve
has 4-5 peaks all within ~35 sec duration.  This is a weak burst with a peak
count rate of 500 cnts/sec in the 15-350 keV band.

This burst should not be confused with Trigger=145563 two hours earlier 
today.
Based on preliminary analysis, the BAT team believes the earlier trigger is 
not
a real GRB.


The XRT attempted to centroid on the afterglow at 14:03:14 UT (166 s after the
BAT trigger) but could not find a bright enough source for a successful 
on-board
centroid.  Ground analysis will be required to determine whether there is 
an X-ray
counterpart.

The Swift Ultra Violet/Optical (UVOT) observations began at 14:03:11.5 UT,
164 seconds after the BAT trigger.  The first data taken after the spacecraft
settled was a 100 sec exposure using the V filter with the midpoint of the
observation at 214 sec after the BAT trigger.  Based on comparisons to the
DSS, we detect no new source. The 5-sigma upper limit in the V-filter is 
17.94 mag.

GCN Circular 3574

Subject
GRB 050712: Swift XRT afterglow position
Date
2005-07-12T15:54:17Z (20 years ago)
From
David Burrows at PSU/Swift <dxb15@psu.edu>
A. Falcone, D. N. Burrows, D. C. Morris, D. Grupe, J. L. Racusin, J. A. 
Nousek (PSU),
J. Greiner (MPE), D. Hinshaw (GSFC-SPSYS), and N. Gehrels (GSFC) report on 
behalf of the Swift XRT team:
The Swift BAT instrument detected GRB 050712 at 14:00:27.51 UT on 12 July 
2005 (Grupe et al. 2005, GCN 3573).  The observatory executed an automated 
slew to the BAT position and the XRT began taking data at 14:03:14 UT 
(166.1 s after the BAT trigger).  The XRT was in Auto state but the source 
was not initially bright enough for a successful on-board centroid.  In 
ground-processed data we find a bright uncataloged, rapidly fading X-ray 
source located at:

RA(J2000) = 05:10:47.9,
Dec(J2000) = +64:54:51.5.

We estimate an uncertainty of about 6 arcseconds radius (90% 
containment).   This source is located 56 arcseconds from the BAT position 
in GCN 3573.

GCN Circular 3575

Subject
GRB050712: UVOT candidate optical counterpart
Date
2005-07-12T19:44:20Z (20 years ago)
From
Evert Rol at U.Leicester <er45@star.le.ac.uk>
E. Rol (U. Leicester), T. Poole, K. McGowan (MSSL), D. Grupe,
J. Nousek (PSU), W. Voges (MPE), and N. Gehrels (GSFC) report on behalf
of the Swift UVOT team:

Analysis of the quick-look data from the UVOT for GRB050712 (Grupe et
al., GCN 3573) reveals a single, relatively bright source inside the
XRT error circle (Falcone et al., GCN 3574) which is not visible in
the DSS red and blue surveys. Its position is (J2000):

  RA   5:10:48.1
  Dec 64:54:47.6

with the astrometry calibrated to the 2MASS catalogue.

An initial estimate of the V-band magnitude for the source over the
timespan of 164-264 seconds after the trigger is V = 18.02 +/- 0.29.
Further analysis is underway to investigate the variability of the
source.

We note that the early UVOT findingchart ('genie image') was not
centred at BAT position, which resulted in the candidate XRT/UVOT
position being outside the field of view of the findingchart.

GCN Circular 3576

Subject
GRB 050712: Swift-BAT Refined Analysis
Date
2005-07-12T20:18:09Z (20 years ago)
From
Craig Markwardt at NASA/GSFC/UMD <craigm@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>
C. Markwardt (NASA GSFC/UMD), M. Ajello (MPE), S. Barthelmy,
L. Barbier (GSFC), J. Cummings (GSFC/NRC), E. Fenimore (LANL),
R. Fink, N. Gehrels (GSFC), D. Hullinger (GSFC/UMD),
H. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), D. Palmer (LANL), A. Parsons (GSFC),
T. Sakamoto (GSFC/NRC), G. Sato (ISAS), M. Suzuki (Saitama),
J. Tueller (GSFC)
on behalf of the Swift-BAT team:

Using the full data set from the recent telemetry downlink, further
analysis of Swift-BAT GRB050712 (Trigger #145881; Grupe et al., GCN
Circ 3573) yields a refined position of RA, Dec 77.698, +64.931 {05h
10m 48s, +64d 55' 52"} (J2000) with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin
(radius, 90% confidence, statistical+systematic).

The burst duration (T90) was determined to be 48 +/- 2 seconds (15-350
keV) starting at T-7.8 seconds.  The spectrum over the interval from
T-11 to T+44 seconds can be fit with a power law with photon index
1.56 +/- 0.18 and yields a fluence of 1.8 X10^-6 erg/cm^2 in the
15-350 keV band.  The peak flux in a 1-sec wide window starting at
T+17.4 seconds is 0.6 +/- 0.2 ph/cm^2/sec.  The light curve is a long
smooth "bump" with weak, if any, structure.

GCN Circular 3579

Subject
GRB050712: XRT refined analysis
Date
2005-07-13T03:39:58Z (20 years ago)
From
Dirk Grupe at PSU/Swift-XRT <grupe@astro.psu.edu>
D. Grupe, D. Burrows, D. Morris, A. Falcone, J. Nousek,
P. Meszaros, M. Chester (PSU), N. Gehrels (GSFC),
on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

Title: GRB050712: XRT refined analysis


We analysed the XRT data of the first four
orbits of GRB050712 (GCN 3573, Grupe et al., 2005).  

The refined position using xrtcentroid is:

RA  (2000):  05 10 47.31
Dec (2000): +64 54 49.76

The centroiding error is 6 arcsec. This is 62 arcseconds from the refined
BAT position (GCN 3576, Markwardt et al., 2005) and
5.5 arcseconds from the tentative UVOT counterpart (GCN 3575, Rol et 
al., 2005)

The WT mode data can be fitted by a single power law with an X-ray slope
beta=1.20+/-0.08. The neutral absorption parameter is 1.8e21 1/cm2, which is
slightly higher than the Galactic value (1.3e21 1/cm2; Dickey & Lockman 
1990).
The PC mode data agree with this result within the errors.

The light curve shows a fading afterglow with a preliminary
decay slope of alpha=0.85+/-0.08.
The unabsorber 0.3-10.0 keV flux at 1 hour after the burst is estimated to
6.3e-12 ergs/s/cm2

GCN Circular 3587

Subject
GRB 050712, optical observations
Date
2005-07-13T09:07:18Z (20 years ago)
From
Sylvio Klose at TLS Tautenburg <klose@tls-tautenburg.de>
A. Zeh, S. Klose, F. Ludwig, B. Stecklum, Thueringer Landessternwarte
Tautenburg,

report:

We observed the field of GRB 050712 (Grupe et al., GCN 3573) in VRI
with the Tautenburg Schmidt telescope starting 21:15 UT on July 12.
The stacked R-band images show a faint source at the position reported
by Rol et al. (GCN 3575). We estimate R>~20 and note, however, that
this source might also be present on the DSS2 red plates. No source
is visible in I, implying I>~19.

GCN Circular 3596

Subject
GRB050712: Swift UVOT Observation of Afterglow Emission
Date
2005-07-13T17:49:21Z (20 years ago)
From
Alexander Blustin at MSSL-UCL <ajb@mssl.ucl.ac.uk>
This message is in MIME format.  The first part should be readable text,
  while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

---1605949312-135341040-1121276953=:1247092
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE

T. Poole (MSSL), D. Grupe (PSU), A. Breeveld (MSSL),
L. Angelini (GSFC-JHU), J. Greiner (MPE) on behalf of the
Swift UVOT team

The Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) began
observations of GRB050712 (Grupe et al. GCN 3573; E.Rol
et al. GCN 3575) on 12th July 2005 at 14:02:58 UT. We detect
a source inside the XRT error circle (Falcone et al.
GCN 3574) in the V and U bands. It initially fades, then
brightens before fading below the detection threshold. It is
not detected in the UV filters. No B observations were taken
because of a bright source in the field of view violating the
UVOT count rate limits.

The aperture for optical observations (V and U) was 6 arcsec
and for the UV 12 arcsec. The limiting magnitudes are given
to a 3 sigma limit.

V filter

start  exposure mid        magnitude
time   time     time
after         =09after
burst           burst
(s)    (s)      (s)
164    100      214        17.97 =B1 0.09    - source detection
313    10       318        17.85 =B1 0.20    - source detection
383    10       388        18.69 =B1 0.20    - source detection
455    10       460        18.13 =B1 0.20    - source detection
526    10       531        18.04 =B1 0.20    - source detection
597    10       602        17.99 =B1 0.20    - source detection
668    49       693        17.83        - limiting magnitude
1207   100      1257       18.01        - limiting magnitude
11414  900      11864      22.15        - limiting magnitude



U filter

start  exposure mid        magnitude
time   time     time
after           after
burst           burst
(s)    (s)      (s)
282    10       287        17.92 =B1 0.20     - source detection
353    10       358        17.82        - limiting magnitude
425    10       430        17.75        - limiting magnitude
425    10       430        19.47 =B1 0.20    - source detection
496    10       501        18.16 =B1 0.20    - source detection
639    49       664        18.50        - limiting magnitude
996    100      1051       18.74        - limiting magnitude
6477   663      6809       19.83        - limiting magnitude



UVW1

start  exposure mid        magnitude
time   time     time
after           after
burst           burst
(s)    (s)      (s)
268    107      322        18.49        - limiting magnitude
1970   833      2387       19.62        - limiting magnitude




UVM2 - limiting magnitudes

start  exposure  mid        magnitude
time   time      time
after            after
burst            burst
(s)    (s)       (s)
325    98        374        19.05        - limiting magnitude
1310   46        1333       18.36        - limiting magnitude
4663   1447      723        20.36        - limiting magnitude




UVW2 - limiting magnitudes

start  exposure  mid        magnitude
time   time      time
after            after
burst            burst
(s)    (s)       (s)
298    98        347        19.05        - limiting magnitude
1102   100       1152       20.15        - limiting magnitude
10447  900       10897      21.57        - limiting magnitude




We caution that the instrument is not yet fully calibrated and that the
magnitude limits presented here may need to be refined.

This message may be cited.

---1605949312-135341040-1121276953=:1247092--

GCN Circular 3601

Subject
GRB050712: TNG R-band observations
Date
2005-07-13T21:17:39Z (20 years ago)
From
Nicola Masetti at IASF,CNR,Bologna <masetti@bo.iasf.cnr.it>
E. Maiorano, E. Palazzi, N. Masetti (INAF/IASF, Bo), D. Malesani (SISSA),
P. D'Avanzo (INAF, OAB), G.L. Israel (INAF, OARm), G. Chincarini (Univ.
Milano-Bicocca), L. Stella (INAF, OARm) and M. Pedani (INAF, TNG) report
on behalf on a larger collaboration:

"We observed the field of GRB 050712 (Grupe et al., GCN 3573; Falcone et
al., GCN 3574) with the Italian TNG telescope, located at the Canary
Islands.

The field was observed before twilight, under a seeing of ~1.4 arcsec,
starting on 2003 Jul 13.182 UT (~14.4 h after the GRB). A set of six
images, 300 s exposure time each, was acquired in the R filter.

Within the XRT error circle (Grupe et al., GCN 3579) we find one source,
at a position consistent with that of the OT detected with UVOT (Rol et
al., GCN 3575; see also Zeh et al., GCN 3587).

Assuming R = 15.8 for the USNO-A2.0 star U1500_0409875 at 
RA = 05:11:10.51, Dec = +64:55:36.0 (J2000), we measure for the object 
above a magnitude R = 21.35 +/- 0.05.

Further analysis is in progress.

This message can be cited."

GCN Circular 3635

Subject
GRB050712: optical limits
Date
2005-07-17T16:28:43Z (20 years ago)
From
Alexei Pozanenko at IKI, Moscow <apozanen@iki.rssi.ru>
V.Rumyantsev,  E.Sergeeva (CrAO), D.Sharapov, M.Ibrahimov (MAO), G.
Kornienko (UAPhO), A.Pozanenko (IKI) on behalf of larger  GRB follow up
collaboration report:

We have observed the error box  of the Swift GRB050712 (D. Grupe et al., GCN
3573)  with 0.4m telescope of  Ussuriysk Astrophysical Observatory (UAPhO),
1.5m telescope of Maidanak observatory (MAO), and 0.7m AZT-8 telescope of
CrAO on July, 12-13.  We do not detect OT found by  T. Poole et al. (GCN
3596)  and E. Maiorano et al. (GCN 3601). Upper limits of   stacked images
calibrated against  of R USNO-A2.0 are following:

Start time,   Exposure, Filter, Limiting mag.



(UT)             (s)



July,12 15:06    4x60    none   15.0

July,12 23:09    3x180   R      19.0

July,13 00:36   11x60    R      19.5



Detailed analysis of the observed images is underway.


The message may be cited.

GCN Circular 3646

Subject
GRB 050712, Tautenburg optical afterglow observations
Date
2005-07-19T16:22:14Z (20 years ago)
From
Andreas Zeh at TLS Tautenburg <zeh@tls-tautenburg.de>
A. Zeh, D. A. Kann, S. Klose (Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Germany),
A. Manning, C. Riddle (Clemson University, SC, USA),

report:

We observed the field of GRB 050712 (Grupe et al. 2005, GCN 3573) with
the Tautenburg 1.34m Schmidt telescope in the R filter at two epochs.

The first set of observations consisted of 10 x 30 second exposures,
mid-exposure time UT 050712.937, i.e. 0.353 days after the GRB. The
second set of observations consisted of 20 x 30 second exposures,
mid-exposure time UT 050713.948, i.e. 1.364 days after the burst.

A comparison of our combined first epoch image with our deeper second
epoch image shows that the potential optical counterpart of the afterglow
(Zeh et al. 2005, GCN 3587) has faded away. Thus, we confirm the earlier
report by Rol et al. (2005, GCN 3575) that the source at coordinates RA,
DEC (J2000) = 5:10:48.1, +64:54:47.6 is the optical counterpart of the
X-ray afterglow (Falcone et al. 2005, GCN 3574; Grupe et al. 2005, GCN 3579).

Assuming R = 15.8 for the USNO-A2.0 star U1500_0409875 at RA, DEC (J2000)
= 05:11:10.51, +64:55:36.0 (Maiorano et al. 2005, GCN 3601), we find the
following magnitudes for the GRB 050712 afterglow:

UT mid		t-t_0 (days)	 mag_Rc

12.937		0.353	          20.7 +/- 0.4
13.948		1.364    	> 21.5

We find that the decay slope alpha is  about 1.2 using the data point by Maiorano 
et al. (2005, GCN 3601).  

This message may be cited.

GCN Circular 3650

Subject
GRB050712: Radio Observations
Date
2005-07-20T17:37:03Z (20 years ago)
From
Patrick B. Cameron at Caltech <pbc@astro.caltech.edu>
P. B. Cameron reports on behalf of the Caltech-NRAO-Carnegie
collaboration:

"We observed the field of GRB050712 (GCN 3573) with the Very Large Array
at 8.5 GHz on July 17.56 and 19.46. No radio source is detected at the
position of the optical transient (GCN 3575) with a 3-sigma upper limit of
96 uJy from the combined images.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National
Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated
Universities, Inc."

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