GRB 060108
GCN Circular 4539
Subject
GRB060108: photometric redshift determination
Date
2006-01-18T01:05:00Z (20 years ago)
From
Cristiano Guidorzi at ARI,Liverpool JMU <crg@astro.livjm.ac.uk>
A. Melandri (Liverpool), A. Grazian (Rome), C. Guidorzi (Liverpool),
A. Monfardini (Liverpool), C.G. Mundell (Liverpool), A. Gomboc
(Liverpool) report:
"Following the identification of the afterglow of GRB060108 (Butler &
Bloom GCN 4500, Monfardini et al. 4502, D'Avanzo et al. 4501) we have
combined contemporaneous optical and NIR photometry, derived from
BRi' Faulkes North Telescope and UKIRT imaging (Levan et al. GCN 4503),
with the VLT J-band upper limit (D'Avanzo et al. GCN 4501) extrapolated
to the same time period assuming three powerlaw decay index values:
alpha = 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 ( F(t)~t^(-alpha) ).
Adopting a chi-square minimisation of the observed spectral energy
distribution, we have derived upper limits and best fitting redshifts
for the three power law indices. We assumed a power-law energy spectrum:
F(nu)~nu^(-beta).
Conservatively, we derive z<2.7 with z_best = 2.03 and
1.14 < beta < 1.22.
This confirms that GRB060108 is not an ultra-high z burst."
GCN Circular 4503
Subject
GRB 060108: IR observations of afterglow
Date
2006-01-14T00:32:39Z (20 years ago)
From
Andrew Levan at U.of Leicester <anl@star.le.ac.uk>
A.J. Levan, N.R. Tanvir (U. Hertfordshire), L. Fuhrman (JACH) report
on behalf of a larger collaboration.
Our UKIRT K-band observations of GRB 060108 reported originally
in GCN 4457 also show an object at the location of the revised X-ray
afterglow position suggested by Butler & Bloom (GCN 4500). The source is
point like and has a magnitude of approximately K=18.4. The implied i-K
colour based on the optical detection at 35 minutes (Monfardini et al. GCN
4502) is i-K ~ 3.
We note that inspection of the SDSS g-band pre-image of the field of GRB
060108 also reveals a marginal detection at the location of this source,
presumably the host galaxy.
Further observations are planned.
GCN Circular 4502
Subject
GRB060108: Faulkes North afterglow evidence
Date
2006-01-13T19:35:23Z (20 years ago)
From
Alessandro Monfardini at JMU/Liverpool Robotic Tele <am@astro.livjm.ac.uk>
A. Monfardini, C.G. Mundell, C. Guidorzi, I. A. Steele, A. Gomboc,
C.J. Mottram, R.J. Smith, D. Bersier, A. Melandri, S. Kobayashi,
D. Carter, M.F. Bode (Liverpool JMU), P. O'Brien, E. Rol, N. Bannister
(Leicester) report:
"The 2-m Faulkes North Telescope observed GRB060108 (Guidorzi et al,
GCN4447) starting within minutes from the alert. We report evidence for an
afterglow in i' band at the position:
RA: 09:48:01.98 DEC: +31:55:08.6 (~0.5" error)
Fully consistent with the revised XRT position suggested in GCN4500 by N.
Butler and J. S. Bloom. A finding chart is in:
http://www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/~cgm/FTNvsSDSS.pdf
(candidate within the green square)
By comparison with USNOB1 we estimated i' = 21.6 +/- 0.3 at a mean epoch
of about 35minutes from the GRB.
This message can be cited."
GCN Circular 4501
Subject
GRB 060108: further analysis of VLT images
Date
2006-01-13T19:27:49Z (20 years ago)
From
Daniele Malesani at SISSA-ISAS,Trieste,Italy <malesani@sissa.it>
P. D'Avanzo (INAF/OABr), D. Malesani (SISSA), G. Tagliaferri, S. Campana
(INAF/OABr), S. Piranomonte (INAF/OAR), G. Chincarini (Univ.
Milano-Bicocca), and L. Stella (INAF/OAR), report on behalf of the
MISTICI collaboration:
After the revision of the coordinates suggested by Butler & Bloom (GCN
4500) of the X-ray afterglow of GRB 060108 (Oates et al., GCN 4443;
Page, Oates & Burrows, GCN 4444; Sakamoto et al., GCN 4445), we looked
again at our VLT near-infrared images (D'Avanzo et al., GCN 4452;
Piranomonte et al., GCN 4484).
The object reported by Butler & Bloom (GCN 4500) is clearly detected in
our deep K-band image, taken on Jan 11.28 UT, and is likely extended.
However, it is not seen in the (shallower) J-band image taken on Jan
9.31 UT. The implied color is J-Ks > 1.8.
This message can be cited.
GCN Circular 4500
Subject
GRB 060108: Evidence for an XRT Position Offset
Date
2006-01-13T18:08:21Z (20 years ago)
From
Nat Butler at MIT/CSR <nrbutler@space.mit.edu>
N. Butler and J. S. Bloom (UC Berkeley) report:
We find 34 X-ray sources with S/N>3 in the XRT PC mode data for GRB
060108 (Oates et al., GCN 4443; Page et al. GCN 4444) using wavdetect,
neglecting the first observation where the GRB afterglow dominated.
The PC mode data from the 2nd through 5th XRT observations have a total
effective exposure of 57.8 ksec. Comparing the wavdetect centroids to
positions of nearby optical sources detected in SDSS DR4 r-band images
(the DR4 data release is described in Adelman-McCarthy et al. 2005;
astro-ph/0507711), we note that very few (1 in 34) of the X-ray positions
are within 3."4 (the XRT error radius reported by Page et al. GCN 4453)
of an optical source. However, 40% of the X-ray sources have optical
counterparts in a narrow cluster of displacements to the North-East.
This is a reasonable number of associations (e.g., Giacconi, et al. 2001,
ApJ, 551, 624), given the depths of the SDSS r-band images (r<~22.2)
and the XRT observations (fx>~5x10^-15 erg cm^-2 s^-1). We note that
most of the optical counterparts are categorized as galaxies or faint
QSOs in the SDSS DR4.
Using these optical/X-ray associations and also accounting for the
sources with no apparent association, we derive an XRT frame offset of
(dRA,dDec) = ( 4.29 , 2.75 ) arcsec, with a 0."7 error (90% conf.).
We calculate a refined position for the GRB 060108 X-ray afterglow of:
RA = 09h 48m 01.92s ; Dec = +31d 55' 07."8 (J2000),
with an uncertainty of 0."9 (90% conf.).
The optical - X-ray offsets are plotted at:
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~nat/060108/060108_offsets.ps , and
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~nat/060108/060108_Xsources.jpg .
At this position, we find a faint galaxy in our z-band Gemini imaging
(GCN 4475) taken at Jan 10.60 UT. We suggest that this is the host of
GRB 060108. An image of the field is posted at:
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~jbloom/grb060108-xcorr.ps.gz
We urge others with earlier-time imaging to inspect this location in
search of an afterglow.
GCN Circular 4484
Subject
GRB 060108: VLT K-band observations
Date
2006-01-11T18:42:18Z (20 years ago)
From
Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB <davanzo@merate.mi.astro.it>
S. Piranomonte (INAF/OAR), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OABr), D. Malesani (SISSA),
G. Chincarini (Univ. Milano-Bicocca), L. Stella (INAF/OAR) S. Campana,
S. Covino and G. Tagliaferri (INAF/OABr), report on behalf of the
MISTICI collaboration:
We observed again the field of GRB 060108 (Oates et al., GCN 4443;
Sakamoto et al., GCN 4445) in the K band with the ESO-VLT UT1 equipped
with the ISAAC camera, starting on Jan 11.283 UT (2.7 d after the GRB).
Coaddition of sixty 60 s exposures does not reveal any object inside the
XRT error circle (Page et al., GCN 4444) down to a limiting magnitude K
= 22.1 (3 sigma confidence level).
This message can be cited.
[GCN OPS NOTE(12jan05): Per author's request, the "060801" in the
Subject-line was changed to "060108".]
GCN Circular 4475
Subject
GRB 060108: z-band imaging from Gemini-North
Date
2006-01-10T22:18:30Z (20 years ago)
From
Josh Bloom at UC Berkeley <jbloom@astron.berkeley.edu>
J. S. Bloom (UC Berkeley), D. Walther, C. Trujillo (Gemini), J. X.
Prochaska (UCO/Lick), R. Foley (UC Berkeley), and H.-W. Chen
(Chicago) report:
"Using the GMOS instrument on Gemini North, we observed the field of
GRB 060108 (Sakamoto et al.; GCN 4445) in z-band for 1080 sec. By
comparison with the SDSS pre-imaging (Cool et al. 4448), we place an
approximate 5 sigma upper limit of any afterglow flux of z = 24.2 AB
mag at the position of the X-ray transient (Page et al. 4453). There
is a faint enhancement (~1 sigma) at the XRT position but we cannot
verify that it is indeed a real source. Further analysis of the IR
imaging is on-going."
A comparison chart (North up, East left) may be found at:
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~jbloom/grb060108.ps
This message may be cited.
GCN Circular 4459
Subject
GRB 060108: ISAS early observations and near IR upper limit
Date
2006-01-10T00:47:40Z (20 years ago)
From
Daisuke Yonetoku at Kanazawa U <yonetoku@astro.s.kanazawa-u.ac.jp>
D. Yonetoku, T. Murakami, H. Kodaira, S. Okuno, S.
T. Kidamura (Kanazawa Univ.) and Y. Kobayashi (NAOJ)
on behalf of the Kanazawa team:
We have observed the field of GRB 060108 (Oates et al., GCN 4443;
Sakamoto et al., GCN 4445) with H and Ks-bands using the 1.3m telescope
on the roof top of ISAS, Japan. The observation was started 12 minutes
after the BAT trigger. We found no new source down to a limiting
magnitude of H = 15.8 and Ks = 15.8 (5 sigma upper limit) within
the position of the XRT error circle (Page et al., GCN 4453).
GCN Circular 4458
Subject
GRB060108: P200 Ks Observations
Date
2006-01-10T00:27:40Z (20 years ago)
From
S. Bradley Cenko at Caltech <cenko@srl.caltech.edu>
S. B. Cenko (Caltech), J. Colbert, H. Teplitz (JPL / Spitzer Science
Center), and D. B. Fox (Penn State) report on behalf of the
Caltech-NRAO-Carnegie GRB collaboration:
We have imaged the field of GRB060108 (Oates et al., GCN 4443; Sakamoto et
al., GCN 4445) with the Wide-Field Infrared Camera mounted on the Palomar
200-inch Hale Telescope. Our observations consisted of 30 x 30 s images
in the Ks band taken in moderate-to-poor external conditions (seeing ~
1.5-2.0"). The mean epoch of our observations is approximately 06:45 UT
January 9 (~ 16.1 hours after the burst). We note these observations are
roughly contemporaneous with the VLT J-band observations reported by
D'Avanzo et al. (GCN 4452).
Inside the revised XRT error circle (Page et al., GCN 4453) we find no
sources. Our limiting magnitude, calculated with respect to several 2MASS
objects in the field, is Ks > 18.5.
Performing a similar analysis to Malesani et al. (GCN 4454) and using the
XRT results from Page et al. (GCN 4453), we find we can constrain the
x-ray-to-optical spectral index, beta_OX, to be < 0.7. While this in
itself is not inconsistent with the standard fireball model (Sari, Piran,
& Narayan, 1998, ApJ, 497, L18), together with the deep early R-band
(Guidorzi et al., GCN 4447) and contemporaneous J-band limits, this
provides further evidence for the exceptional (i.e. either very dark or
very high-z) nature of this event.
GCN Circular 4457
Subject
GRB 060108: early UKIRT K-band observations
Date
2006-01-10T00:20:11Z (20 years ago)
From
Nial Tanvir at IofA U.Cambridge <nrt@ast.cam.ac.uk>
A.J. Levan, N.R. Tanvir (U. Hertfordshire), L. Fuhrman (JACH) report on
behalf of a larger collaboration:
We observed the field of GRB 060108 with UKIRT/WFCAM. A 30 min K-band
exposure was made in ~0.9 arcsec seeing, starting Jan 08 15.23 UT
(ie. approximately 45 minutes post-burst). Our provisional analysis shows
no evidence for any source within the the XRT afterglow error circle
reported by Page et al. (GCN 4453).
This suggests that the optical/IR afterglow of GRB 060108 was
intrinsically sub-luminous, since otherwise either very high redshift,
or substantial dust extinction would be required to produce our
non-detection.
GCN Circular 4454
Subject
GRB 060108: a dark burst?
Date
2006-01-09T12:48:19Z (20 years ago)
From
Daniele Malesani at SISSA-ISAS,Trieste,Italy <malesani@sissa.it>