GRB 120118B
GCN Circular 12852
Subject
GRB 120118B: Swift detection of a burst
Date
2012-01-18T17:13:53Z (13 years ago)
From
Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC <scott@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>
O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC),
A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), S. Campana (INAF-OAB),
M. M. Chester (PSU), C. Guidorzi (U Ferrara),
S. T. Holland (CRESST/USRA/GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU),
N. P. M. Kuin (UCL-MSSL), A. Y. Lien (NASA/GSFC/ORAU),
V. Mangano (INAF-IASFPA), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC),
A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. T. O'Brien (U Leicester),
K. L. Page (U Leicester), T. Sakamoto (NASA/UMBC),
C. J. Saxton (UCL-MSSL), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU),
M. H. Siegel (PSU), R. L. C. Starling (U Leicester),
C. A. Swenson (PSU), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) and B.-B. Zhang (PSU) report
on behalf of the Swift Team:
At 17:00:21 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 120118B (trigger=512003). Swift slewed immediately to the burst.
The BAT on-board calculated location is
RA, Dec 124.866, -7.182, which is
RA(J2000) = 08h 19m 28s
Dec(J2000) = -07d 10' 53"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including
systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows single peak
with a duration of about 30 sec. The peak count rate
was ~1700 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~6 sec after the trigger.
The XRT began observing the field at 17:02:13.2 UT, 112.1 seconds after
the BAT trigger. No source was detected in the 2.5-s promptly available
image. We are waiting for the full dataset to detect and localise the
XRT counterpart.
UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter
starting 115 seconds after the BAT trigger. No credible afterglow candidate has
been found in the initial data products. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 25% of
the BAT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 19.6 mag.
The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the
BAT error circle. The list of sources is typically complete to about 18 mag. No
correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of
0.15.
Burst Advocate for this burst is O. M. Littlejohns (oml2 AT star.le.ac.uk).
Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information
regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after
trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see
Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.)
GCN Circular 12853
Subject
GRB 120118B: MASTER optical observations
Date
2012-01-18T19:39:46Z (13 years ago)
From
Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs <gcncirc@observ.inetcomm.ru>
O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev,K.Ivanov, V.A.Poleshchuk, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev
Irkutsk State University
V. Lipunov, E. Gorbovskoy, V.Kornilov, D.Kuvshinov, A.Belinski, N.Tyurina,
N.Shatskiy, P.Balanutsa, V.V.Chazov, A.Kuznetsov,
D.Zimnukhov, M. Kornilov, A.Kuznetsov, D.Zimnukhov, M. Kornilov,
A.Sankovich, S. Shurpakov
Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute
V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnich, A. Popov
Ural State University, Kourovka
E. Sinykov, V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda,
Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk
A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik
Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory
MASTER II robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru)
located in Tunka was pointed to the GRB120118A (Littlejohns et al.,
GCN Circ 12852) 1417 s after notice time
and 1437 sec after GRB time at 2012-01-18 17:24:53 UT in two
polarizations. On our first (120s exposure) set we haven`t found optical
transient within SWIFT error-box .
The delay is due to weather conditions.
The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 17.0 mag
This circular was generated automatically.
The message may be cited.
GCN Circular 12854
Subject
GRB 120118B: Swift-XRT position
Date
2012-01-18T20:50:33Z (13 years ago)
From
Owen Littlejohns at U of Leicester <oml2@le.ac.uk>
O. M. Littlejohns, K. Page and P. A. Evans (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:
Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright, fading, uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec = 124.8713, -7.1848 (degrees) which is equivalent to:
RA (J2000.0) = 08h 19m 29.12s
DEC (J2000.0) = -07d 11' 05.2"
with an uncertainty of 2.2 arcsec (radius, 90% containment).
This location is 21.4 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, inside the BAT
error circle.
This message may be cited.
GCN Circular 12856
Subject
GRB 120118B: Faulkes Telescope South observations
Date
2012-01-18T23:08:17Z (13 years ago)
From
Andrea Melandri at INAF-OAB <andrea.melandri@brera.inaf.it>
A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), C. G. Mundell (Liverpool JMU) and C. Guidorzi
(U. Ferrara) report on behalf of a large collaboration:
The 2-m Faulkes Telescope South responded automatically to Swift GRB
120118B (Littlejohns et al. GCN Circ. 12852) with observations
beginning at 17:03 UT 2012 January 18th (~2.8 min after the BAT
trigger time).
Within the XRT error circle (Littlejohns et al. GCN Circ. 12854) we do
not find any source in the R and i' filters down to the following
(3sigma) limiting magnitudes:
Mid time from Total Exp Filter Magnitude
trigger (min) (s)
-------------------------------------------------
34.9 720 R > 18.9
39.2 700 i' > 19.1
-------------------------------------------------
Magnitudes have been calibrated from R2 and I nominal values of nearby
USNOB1.0 stars.
GCN Circular 12857
Subject
GRB 120118B: Enhanced Swift-XRT position
Date
2012-01-19T01:33:14Z (13 years ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@star.le.ac.uk>
J.P. Osborne, A.P. Beardmore, P.A. Evans and M.R. Goad (U. Leicester)
report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team.
Using 1411 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 2 UVOT
images for GRB 120118B, we find an astrometrically corrected X-ray
position (using the XRT-UVOT alignment and matching UVOT field sources
to the USNO-B1 catalogue): RA, Dec = 124.87106, -7.18474 which is equivalent
to:
RA (J2000): 08h 19m 29.05s
Dec (J2000): -07d 11' 05.1"
with an uncertainty of 1.8 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence).
This position may be improved as more data are received. The latest
position can be viewed at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions. Position
enhancement is described by Goad et al. (2007, A&A, 476, 1401) and Evans
et al. (2009, MNRAS, 397, 1177).
This circular was automatically generated, and is an official product of the
Swift-XRT team.
GCN Circular 12858
Subject
GRB 120118B: NOT observations
Date
2012-01-19T01:33:52Z (13 years ago)
Edited On
2024-11-07T18:51:09Z (7 months ago)
From
Paul Vreeswijk at U of Iceland <pmv@raunvis.hi.is>
Edited By
Judith Racusin at NASA/GSFC <judith.racusin@nasa.gov> on behalf of Leo P. Singer at NASA/GSFC <leo.p.singer@nasa.gov>
Paul Vreeswijk (U. Iceland), Tapio Pursimo (NOT) and Páll Jakobsson
(U. Iceland), report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
Using ALFOSC on the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) we have obtained
Sloan r'- (3 x 600 s) and z'-band (6 x 300 s) imaging of the field of
the Swift GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12852), starting on
2012 January 18 at 22:48 UT, just under 6 hours after the burst. The
observations were performed in non-optimal seeing conditions (~3.5").
We do not detect any object within the XRT error circle (Littlejohns
et al., GCN 12854), down to approximate limiting magnitudes of r'>21.2
and z'>19.5 (calibrated against the SDSS catalog).
GCN Circular 12862
Subject
GRB 120118B: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits
Date
2012-01-19T05:11:09Z (13 years ago)
From
Margaret Chester at PSU <chester@astro.psu.edu>
M. M. Chester (PSU) and O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester)
report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team:
The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 120118B
116 s after the BAT trigger (Littlejohns et al., GCN Circ. 12852).
No optical afterglow consistent with the enhanced XRT position
(Osborne et al., GCN Circ. 12857) is detected in the initial UVOT data.
Preliminary 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT photometric system
(Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the first
finding chart (FC) exposures and subsequent exposures are:
Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag
white_FC 116 265 147 >20.9
u_FC 328 577 246 >19.9
white 116 1528 392 >21.6
v 657 1574 113 >19.1
b 583 1504 97 >20.5
u 328 1479 324 >20.2
w1 708 1454 78 >19.0
m2 682 1430 78 >19.9
w2 633 1554 117 >19.8
The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic
extinction
due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.15 in the direction of the burst
(Schlegel et al. 1998).
GCN Circular 12868
Subject
GRB 120118B : Lulin Optical limit
Date
2012-01-19T06:45:41Z (13 years ago)
From
Kuiyun Huang at ASIAA <ljhuang@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw>
GRB 120118B : Lulin Optical limit
H.Y. Hsiao, Y. Urata (NCU), K.Y. Huang (ASIAA) on behalf the EAFON
cooperation:
The Lulin 1-m telescope at Taiwan started optical observations on
GRB 120118B at 1.8 hours after the BAT trigger (Littlejohns et al. GCN
12852). No optical counterpart was found at the Swift-XRT position
(Osborne et al, GCN 12857). Our stacked images indicate 3-sigma
limiting magnitudes of g'~21.9, r'~ 21.4 and i'~ 20.9. The
calibrations were against two nearby sdss stars.
This message can be cited.
GCN Circular 12869
Subject
GRB 120118B: Swift-XRT refined Analysis
Date
2012-01-19T09:56:37Z (13 years ago)
From
Owen Littlejohns at U of Leicester <oml2@le.ac.uk>
O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester) reports on behalf of the Swift-XRT
team:
We have analysed 8.6 ks of XRT data for GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et
al. GCN Circ. 12852), from 96 s to 33.9 ks after the BAT trigger. The
data comprise 19 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 9 s were
taken while Swift was slewing) with the remainder in Photon Counting
(PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by
Osborne et al. (GCN. Circ 12857).
The light curve can be modelled with a series of power-law decays. The
initial decay index is alpha=3.9 (+0.5, -0.4). At T+312 s the decay
flattens to an alpha of -0.25 (+0.24, -0.21) before breaking again at
T+2735 s to a final decay with index alpha=0.99 (+/-0.15).
A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.22 (+0.20, -0.18). The
best-fitting absorption column is 2.7 (+/-0.6) x 10^21 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 6.9 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al.
2005). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion
factor deduced from this spectrum is 3.6 x 10^-11 (6.4 x 10^-11) erg
cm^-2 count^-1.
A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column: 2.7 (+/-0.6) x 10^21 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 6.9 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: 6.0 sigma
Photon index: 2.22 (+0.20, -0.18)
The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00512003.
This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
GCN Circular 12870
Subject
GRB 120118B: TNG NIR observations
Date
2012-01-19T11:53:27Z (13 years ago)
From
Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB <paolo.davanzo@brera.inaf.it>
P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB) and E. Palazzi (INAF/IASF Bo) report on behalf of
the CIBO collaboration:
We observed the field of GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12852) with
the 3.6m TNG telescope located in the Canary Islands. We secured 40 min
H-band and 40 min J-band imaging with the NICS instrument, carried out at
a mean t-t0=9.9 hr and t-t0=10.9 hr, respectively.
Within the UVOT-enhanced XRT error circle (Osborne et al., GCN 12857), we
detect no source down to the limiting magnitudes H > 20.3 and J > 20.5
(Vega, calibrated against the 2MASS catalog).
We note however, a hint for the presence of a faint, low-significance
object in the H-band image, at the following position (J2000):
RA: 08:19:29.02
Dec: -07:11:05.1
(+/- 0.3"), consistent with the UVOT-enhanced XRT position. At present we
cannot asses if the source is real or due to a background fluctuation.
We acknoledge the TNG staff for their support, in particular Avet
Harutyunyan and Gianni Mainella.
[GCN OPS NOTE(19jan12): Per author's request, "Gianni Tessicini" was changed
to "Gianni Mainella".]
GCN Circular 12873
Subject
GRB 120118B, Swift-BAT refined analysis
Date
2012-01-19T14:48:38Z (13 years ago)
From
Hans Krimm at NASA-GSFC <hans.krimm@nasa.gov>
T. Sakamoto (GSFC/UMBC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC),
J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), E. E. Fenimore (LANL), N. Gehrels (GSFC),
H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester),
C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), M. Stamatikos (OSU),
J. Tueller (GSFC), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team):
Using the data set from T-61 to T+242 sec from the recent telemetry downlink,
we report further analysis of BAT GRB 120118B (trigger #512003)
(Littlejohns, et al., GCN Circ. 12852). The BAT ground-calculated position is
RA, Dec = 124.862, -7.178 deg which is
RA(J2000) = 08h 19m 26.9s
Dec(J2000) = -07d 10' 39.5"
with an uncertainty of 1.3 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment).
The partial coding was 40%.
The mask-weighted light curve shows a single smooth FRED peak lasting from T-5
sec to T+25 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 23.26 +- 4.02 sec (estimated error
including systematics).
The time-averaged spectrum from T-1.92 to T+30.51 sec is best fit by a simple
power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is
2.08 +- 0.11. The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 1.8 +- 0.1 x 10^-6 erg/cm2.
The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T+6.69 sec in the 15-150 keV band
is 2.2 +- 0.3 ph/cm2/sec. All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence
level.
The results of the batgrbproduct analysis are available at
http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_s/512003/BA/
GCN Circular 12879
Subject
GRB 120118B: RTT150 optical observations
Date
2012-01-19T19:47:54Z (13 years ago)
From
Rodion Burenin at IKI, Moscow <rodion@hea.iki.rssi.ru>
I. Bikmaev, A.Galeev , N. Sakhibullin (Kazan University),
R. Burenin, M. Pavlinsky, R. Sunyaev (IKI),
I. Khamitov, Z. Eker (TUG), U. Kiziloglu (METU), E. Gogus (Sabanci Uni.)
report:
The field of GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12852) was observed
with Russian-Turkish 1.5-m telescope (RTT150, Bakirlitepe, TUBITAK
National Observatory, Turkey) in January 18/19, 2012, during UT 20:29
-- 01:01, i.e. starting approximately 3.5 hours after the burst. A
serie of 3 exposures by 900 sec and 10 exposures by 600 sec each in Rc
filter was obtained at moderate seeing conditions of 1.8-2.3 arcsec.
We found no optical source within the 1.8" enhanced XRT error circle
(Osborne et al., GCN 12857) in our combined image at a limiting
magnitude of Rc ~ 23.2 mag.
GCN Circular 12900
Subject
GRB 120118B: optical upper limit
Date
2012-01-27T09:43:39Z (13 years ago)
From
Alina Volnova at SAI MSU <alinusss@gmail.com>
A. Volnova (SAI MSU), E. Litvinenko (UBAI), I. Molotov (KIAM), A.
Pozanenko (IKI) on behalf of larger GRB follow up collaboration
report:
We observed the field of the Swift GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al.,
GCNs 12852, 12854) with ORI-40 telescope of Kitab ISON observatory on
Jan. 18 between (UT) 17:39:55 and 18:10:51. We obtained several
unfiltered images with exposure of 60 seconds. On the stacked image we
do not detect a source reported by D'Avanzo et al. (GCN 12870). The
photometry is based on nearby reference stars of USNO-B1.0 (R2
magnitudes):
Tstart UT, T0+, Filter, Exposure, OT, UL (3 sigma)
(mid, d) (s)
17:39:55 0.03127 none 26x60 n/d 19.5
GCN Circular 14225
Subject
GRB 120118B: host observations and redshift determination
Date
2013-02-17T01:46:52Z (12 years ago)
From
Daniele Malesani at Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Inst <malesani@dark-cosmology.dk>
Daniele Malesani, Thomas Kruehler (DARK/NBI), Daniel Perley (Caltech),
Johan P. U. Fynbo, Dong Xu, Bo Milvang-Jensen (DARK/NBI), Paolo Goldoni
(APC, CEA/Irfu), Steve Schulze (PUC and MCSS), report on behalf of the
X-shooter GTO GRB collaboration:
We observed the field of GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12852)
with the Keck I telescope located on Mauna Kea. Observations were
carried out on 2013 Feb 10 (389 days after the GRB), using the LRIS
instrument, simultaneously in the g and I bands, for a total exposure
time of 750 and 720 s, respectively. Consistent with the latest XRT
position (Osborne et al. GCN 12857; see also
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions/), we detect a bright, slightly
extended object (I = 23.8, Vega), which we consider to be the GRB host
galaxy. Its coordinates are (J2000):
RA = 08:19:29.047
Dec = -07:11:05.14
This position is consistent with that of the tentative near-infrared
counterpart reported by D'Avanzo & Palazzi (GCN 12870).
A spectrum of this source was taken on 2013 Feb 13 with the ESO VLT
equipped with the X-shooter spectrograph, covering the wavelength range
3000-20500 AA. The seeing was 0.6". In the NIR arm, we detect several
emission lines, interpreted as [O III] (5007), [Ne III] (3869), and
hints for [O III] (4959) and [O II] (3727) at a common redshift z =
2.943. The weakness/lack of other prominent lines usually seen in GRB
host spectra is readily explained by their location in non-favorable
parts of the spectrum. In the UVB arm, the host continuum is detected
down to ~4750 AA, which corresponds to the onset of the Lyman alpha
forest at z = 2.943.
At z = 2.94 the host is a fairly luminous galaxy at 2000 � rest-frame,
roughly 0.5 mag brighter than L* at that redshift (e.g. Gabasch et al.
2004, A&A, 421, 41). The properties of this object are akin to those of
Lyman-break galaxies.
We acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff at Mauna Kea
and Paranal, in particular Cedric Ledoux and Andrea Mehner.