GRB 250219A
GCN Circular 40000
Subject
GRB 250219A: NOT candidate host galaxy detection
Date
2025-04-01T09:28:18Z (7 months ago)
From
Daniele B. Malesani at IMAPP / Radboud University <d.malesani@astro.ru.nl>
Via
Web form
Daniele B. Malesani (DAWN/NBI and Radboud Univ.), Benjamin Schneider (LAM), Gregory Corcoran (UCD), A. Martin-Carrillo (UCD), and Nikko Pyykkinen (NOT and Turku) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
We observed the field of GRB 250219A (Daigne et al., GCN 39376) using the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) equipped with the ALFOSC imager. Observations were carried out with the r-band filter and started on 2025 March 26 at 02:18 UT (34.4 days after the GRB), for a total of 50 min on source. Seeing and Moon conditions were favorable.
Consistent with the position of the optical afterglow (Xin et al., GCN 39380; Magnani et al., GCN 39382; Fu et al., GCN 39383), we detect a faint object with AB magnitude r = 25.2 +- 0.3, calibrated against nearby objects from Pan-STARRS.
While we note a slight offset (~0.9") compared to the afterglow position (Fu et al., GCN 39383), we suggest the above object to be a candidate host galaxy of GRB 250219A.
We thank Liping Xin, Francis Fortin and Susanna Vergani for helpful discussion.
GCN Circular 39595
Subject
GRB 250219A: SVOM/C-GFT optical upper limit at early phase
Date
2025-03-05T12:41:57Z (8 months ago)
From
SVOM_group <svomgroup@bao.ac.cn>
Via
Web form
Zhe Kang (CHO), F. Daigne (IAP), M. Gnaoui (IAP), Liping Xin(NAOC), Xuhui Han(NAOC), Chao WU (NAOC), Pinpin Zhang (NAOC), Xiaomeng Lu (NAOC), Zhenwei Li (CHO), You Lv (CHO), Ruosong Zhang (NAOC), Yujie Xiao(NAOC), Yulei, Qiu(NAOC), Jing Wang(NAOC), Jianyan Wei (NAOC) report on behalf of the SVOM/C-GFT team:
We observed the field of GRB 250219A (SVOM/ECLAIRs burst-id:sb25021904, Daigne et al. GCN 39376) starting at 2025-02-19T16:03:29 UT, ~10.68 mins after the burst trigger with C-GFT. A series of g, r and i band images were obtained with exposure time of 10s for each frame. No source consistent with the XRT (Kennea et al., GCN 39379; Turpin et al., GCN 39456) was detected. The optical counterpart (Xin et al., GCN 39380; Magnani et al., GCN 39382; Fu et al., GCN 39383; ) was not detected in our images. The upper limit at early phase are,
(T-T0)_mid(sec) exptime(s) limiting_mag(3sigma) band
------------------------------------------------------
678 6x10s >19.57 (6x10s) i
1013 6x10s >20.11 (6x10s) g
1102 6x10s >20.03 (6x10s) r
The photometry was calibrated with nearby stars in UCAC4 catalog. It is consistent with those results reported by Lagioia et al. (GCN 39381), Adami et al. (GCN 39384), Breeveld et al (GCN 39385), Turpin et al. (GCN 39407) and Komesh et al. (GCN 39419).
We thank the observation assistant Guangsheng Zhang and Chunlei Guo at Jilin observatory for their excellent support.
Chinese Ground Follow-up Telescope of SVOM mission is located at Jilin, Changchun Observatory, National Astronomical Observatories, CAS. It has FOV of 1.28 deg x 1.28 deg with a 4k*4k CMOS detector mounted on the primary focus of 1.2-meter-aperure telescope.
GCN Circular 39456
Subject
GRB 250219A: EP-FXT afterglow detection
Date
2025-02-24T14:43:44Z (8 months ago)
From
Damien Turpin at CEA-Saclay <dturpin-astro@hotmail.com>
Via
Web form
D. Turpin (CEA), P. Y. Han, C. X. Zhang (HUST), J. Yang (NJU), X. Tian (GXU), D. F. Hu (PMO, CAS), W. Chen (NAO, CAS), J. Guan, C. K. Li, Y . Chen, S. M. Jia, W. W. Cui, D. W. Han, W. Li, C. Z. Liu, F . J. Lu, L. M. Song, J. Wang, J. J. Xu, J. Zhang, S. N. Zhang, H. S. Zhao, X. F . Zhao (IHEP , CAS), Y . Liu, C. C. Jin, C. Zhang, Z. X. Ling (NAOC,CAS), B. Cordier (CEA) on behalf of the SVOM and Einstein Probe teams
We performed a follow-up observation of GRB 250219A (Daigne et al., GCN 39376) with the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) on board the Einstein Probe (EP) mission. The observation started at 2025-02-21T07:04:16 (T-TGRB ~ 1.63 days) for about 3ks of exposure in total.
An uncatalogued X-ray source is detected by both FXT-A and FXT-B at the position of the x-ray afterglow candidate reported by Swift/XRT (Kennea et al., GCN 39379). This position is also consistent with the optical afterglow detected by SVOM/VT (Xin et al., GCN 39380), COLIBRÍ (Magnani et al. GCN 39382) and the NOT (Fu et al., GCN 39383).
A preliminary analysis shows that the spectrum can be fitted with an absorbed power law with nH=1.53*10^20 cm^-2 and a photon index of 1.53 (-0.68/+0.70) . The observed flux in the 0.3-10.0 keV is 4.4 (+2.2/-1.1)*10^-13 erg/s/cm^2. Compared to the Swift/XRT epoch Kennea et al., GCN 39379), the observed source flux has faded by almost one order of magnitude with a temporal slope alpha~-0.56.
Launched on January 9, 2024, EP is a space X-ray observatory to monitor the soft X-ray sky with X-ray follow-up capability (Yuan et al. 2022, Handbook of X-ray and Gamma-ray Astrophysics). EP is a mission of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with ESA, MPE and CNES.
GCN Circular 39419
Subject
GRB 250219A: NUTTelA-TAO / BSTI Optical Limits
Date
2025-02-22T07:47:55Z (8 months ago)
From
Toktarkhan Komesh at Nazarbayev University <toktarkhan.komesh@nu.edu.kz>
Via
Web form
T. Komesh (NU), Z. Abdullayev (NU), Z. Maksut (NU), D. Berdikhan (NU), B. Grossan (UCB, NU), M. Krugov (FAI) and E. Abdikamalov (NU) report on behalf of the Energetic Cosmos Laboratory:
We imaged the field of GRB 250219A with the Nazarbayev University Transient Telescope at Assy-Turgen Astrophysical Observatory (NUTTelA-TAO) starting at 21:54:17 UT on 2025-02-19, 6.0 hours after the SVOM/ECLAIRs trigger (F. Daigne et al., GCN 39376). Observations were made in clear conditions. No source consistent with the XRT (J. A. Kennea et al., GCN 39379) was detected. We report the following results:
start time t-t0 (minute) end time UL g' UL r' exposure_time (s)
------------ --------------------------------------------------
21:54:17 361 21:55:17 19.29 19.09 60
21:58:38 365 22:02:38 19.57 19.49 240
t is the middle time, t0 is the SVOM/ECLAIRs trigger time, t-t0 is given in minutes. UL gives the 5 sigma upper limit sensitivity in magnitudes, for images of the given exposure time. Calibration was done with 4 Pan-STARRS catalog stars on our images. No color or other corrections were applied to the values above.
-----------------------------------------------
NU = Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
UCB = University of California, Berkeley, USA
FAI = Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute, Kazakhstan
This research has been funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. AP26103591). The NUTTelA-TAO Team acknowledges the support of the staff of the Assy-Turgen Astrophysical Observatory, Almaty, Kazakhstan, and the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute, Almaty, Kazkhstan.
GCN Circular 39407
Subject
GRB 250219A: GRANDMA/Kilonova-Catcher upper limits
Date
2025-02-21T14:08:21Z (8 months ago)
From
Damien Turpin at CEA-Saclay <dturpin-astro@hotmail.com>
Via
Web form
D. Turpin (CEA-Saclay/Irfu), D. Marchais (KNC), M. Freeberg (KNC), C. Andrade(UMN), S. Antier (OCA), M. Coughlin (UMN),S. Karpov (FZU), I. Tosta e Melo (UniCT-DFA), P. Hello (IJCLAB), P-A Duverne (APC), T. Pradier (Unistra/IPHC), N. Guessoum (AUS) on behalf of the GRANDMA/Kilonova-Catcher collaboration:
We observed the field of GRB 250219A (Daigne et al., GCN 39376) detected by SVOM/ECLAIRs with the GRANDMA citizen science project Kilonova-catcher (KNC). Our observations were performed with the T-CAT 0.4m telescope at Crous des Gats Observatory (Cintegabelle, France) and the 0.43m CDK telescope at Alnitak Observatory (Spain) starting from TGRB + 5.8hr.
In our stacked frames, we do not detect any optical afterglow at the position reported by Swift/XRT (Kennea et al., GCN 39379), SVOM/VT (Xin et al., GCN 39380) and COLIBRÍ (Magnani et al., GCN 39382).
We obtain the following 5-sigma (Vega) upper limits:
+---------------+-----------+--------+---------+-----------+
| Tmid-TGRB (hr)| Exp (s) | Filter | Mag U.L.| Instrument|
+===============+===========+========+=========+===========+
| 6.6 | 119 x 32s | Rc | 20.7 | T-CAT |
| 6.6 | 119 x 32s | V | 21.3 | T-CAT |
| 6.8 | 10 x 180s | Rc | 20.9 | 0.43m CDK |
| 8.5 | 102 x 32s | Rc | 20.8 | T-CAT |
| 8.5 | 102 x 32s | V | 21.4 | T-CAT |
+---------------+-----------+--------+---------+-----------+
All the data have been reduced by a single data processing pipeline, STDPipe (Karpov et al., 2022). Images obtained in Johnson Cousin filters were calibrated using the Gaia DR3 Synphot catalog.
We use the SkyPortal application (skyportal.io) to monitor our observational campaign (Coughlin et al. 2023).
GRANDMA is a worldwide telescope network (grandma.ijclab.in2p3.fr) devoted to the observation of transients in the context of multi-messenger astrophysics (Antier et al. 2020 MNRAS 497, 5518). Kilonova-Catcher (KNC) is the citizen science program of GRANDMA (http://kilonovacatcher.in2p3.fr/).
GCN Circular 39385
Subject
GRB 250219A: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits
Date
2025-02-20T10:56:47Z (8 months ago)
From
Alice Breeveld at MSSL-UCL <a.breeveld@ucl.ac.uk>
Via
email
A.A. Breeveld (UCL-MSSL) reports on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team:
The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of the SVOM/ECLAIRS-detected burst GRB 250219A (Daigne et al., GCN Circ. 39376) 5.1 ks after the trigger. The afterglow reported by Kennea et al. (GCN Circ. 39379), Xin et al. (GCN Circ. 39380), Magnani et al. (GCN Circ. 39382) and Fu et al. (GCN Circ. 39383) is not detected in the U-band exposures.
Preliminary 3-sigma upper limit using the UVOT photometric system (Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the initial summed exposure is:
Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag
u 5097 11297 330 >20.1
The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.016 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998).
GCN Circular 39384
Subject
GRB 250219A: OHP/T193 optical upper limit
Date
2025-02-20T10:49:09Z (8 months ago)
From
Christophe Adami at LAM <christophe.adami@lam.fr>
Via
Web form
C. Adami (LAM/Pytheas/AMU), B. Schneider (LAM), M. Dennefeld (IAP/CNRS/Sorbonne U.), J. P. Palmerio
(CEA/Irfu), E. Le Floc'h (CEA/Irfu), D. Turpin (CEA/Irfu), S. Basa (UAR Pytheas) report on behalf of a
larger collaboration:
We observed the field of the GRB 250219A (Daigne et al., GCN 39376) using the T193cm telescope at
Observatoire de Haute-Provence (France) equipped with the MISTRAL spectro-imager. We obtained 7
exposures (1x360s, 1x720s and 5x600s) in the r-band starting at 01:11:32 UT on 2025-02-20 (9.3h after
the trigger).
In the stacked image, we do not detect any new source at the XRT source #1 position (Evans et al., GCN
39377) down to the following 3-sigma limit:
r > 22.68 mag AB
This value is consistent with previously reported detections or upper limits on the optical afterglow
(Xin et al., GCN 39380; Lagioia et al., GCN 39381; Magnani et al., GCN 39382; Fu et al., GCN 39383).
The photometric calibration was performed using nearby stars from the PanSTARRS catalog and the
magnitude is not corrected for Galactic extinction.
We acknowledge the excellent support from Observatoire de Haute-Provence and in particular Stephane
Favard, Yasmine Davis and Alix Freckelton for the MISTRAL observations.

GCN Circular 39383
Subject
GRB 250219A: NOT optical observations
Date
2025-02-20T08:48:49Z (8 months ago)
From
Daniele B. Malesani at IMAPP / Radboud University <d.malesani@astro.ru.nl>
Via
Web form
S. Y. Fu (NAOC), J. T. Palmerio (CEA/Irfu), D. B. Malesani (DAWN/NBI and Radboud Univ.), L. Cotter (UCD), D. Xu (NAOC), B. Schneider (LAM), B. N. Hauptmann (NOT and DTU Space), A. M. Kadela (NOT and NBI), report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
We observed the optical afterglow candidate (Xin et al., GCN 39380; Magnani et al., GCN 39382; see also Kennea et al., GCN 39379) of the SVOM/ECLAIRs GRB 250219A (Daigne et al., GCN 39376). Observations were carried out using the ALFOSC instrument mounted on the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT). We obtained 3 x 300 s Sloan r-band frames at a median time of 10.16 hr post-burst and 5 x 200 s Sloan z-band frames at a median time of 10.46 hr post-burst.
In the stacked r-band image, the afterglow is weakly detected, at coordinates
R.A. (J2000) = 11:33:29.18
Dec. (J2000) = +22:42:21.85
with an uncertainty of ~0.3 arcsec, which is consistent with the SVOM/VT counterpart position (Xin et al, GCN 39380