EP250226a, GRB 250226A
GCN Circular 39796
WeiKang Zheng (UCB), Xuhui Han (NAOC), Pinpin Zhang (NAOC) and
Alexei V. Filippenko (UCB) report on behalf of the KAIT GRB team:
The 0.76-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT), located at
Lick Observatory, observed the field of EP250226a/GRB 250226A
(Fermi GBM team, GCN 39479; Jiang et al., GCN 39482; Jiang et al.,
GCN 39513; Zhang et al., GCN 39492; Thakur et al., GCN 39518;
Pathak et al., GCN 39530; Svinkin et al., GCN 39542; Ronchini
et al., GCN 39672) on Feb 26 at 09:27:20 (~2.88 hours after GBM
trigger) and lasted for 4 hours. A set of 160x60s images were
obtained in the clear (roughly R) filters. We detect the optical
afterglow (An et. al, GCN 39486; Zhu et. al, GCN 39487; Magnani
et. al, GCN 39488; Li et. al, GCN 39489; Aryan et. al, GCN 39509;
Zou et al., GCN 39511; Li et. al, GCN 39514; Jiang et al., GCN 39515;
Poidevin et al., GCN 39524; Tanasan et al., GCN 39554) in our single
images. We measure the OT brightness to be 19.6 +/- 0.1 mag (Vega)
at 2.88 hours after GBM trigger. We observed the OT again on the
following night with 60x60s exposures and detected the OT in the
coadd image with 22.2 +/- 0.2 mag (Vega) at a mid time of 1.17 days.
This gives a decay index of -1.04 between the two nights.
GCN Circular 39730
N. Pankov (HSE, IKI), E. Klunko (ISTP), A. Novichonok (KIAM), I. Nikolenko (INASAN), A. Pozanenko (IKI) report on behalf of IKI-GRB-FuN:
We performed optical observations of the field of GRB 250226A (The Fermi GBM team, GCN 39479; V.Lipunov et. al, GCN 39481; Jiang et. al, GCN 39482; An et. al, GCN 39486; Zhu et. al, GCN 39487; Magnani et. al, GCN 39488; Li et. al, GCN 39489; Li et. al, GCN 39492; Aryan et. al, GCN 39509; Zou et. al, GCN 39511; Jiang et. al, GCN 39513; Li et. al, GCN 39514; Junjie-Jin et. al, GCN 39515; Thakur et. al, GCN 39518; Poidevin et. al, GCN 39524; Pathak et. al, GCN 39530; Pankov et. al, GCN 39539; Pankov et. al, GCN 39540; Svinkin et. al, GCN 39542; Tanasan et. al, GCN 39554) in the Rb filter with 1-meter Zeiss-1000 telescope of the Koshka Observatory (INASAN), and in the R-filter with 1.5-meter AZT-33IK telescope of Sayan Solar Observatory (Mondy). The observations began on 2025-02-28 23:27:51 UT, i.e. ~2.75 days since trigger at Koshka. We do not detect the optical counterpart in the stacked images from both telescopes. The preliminary upper limits are as follows:
Date UT start t-T0 Exp. Filter UL(3sigma)
(mid, days) (s)
2025-02-28 23:27:51 2.75236 47*180 Rb 22.1
2025-03-01 20:06:19 3.60304 57*120 R 23.8
Ref. stars
USNO-B1.0
RA Dec R2
14:57:12.82 +20:57:33.04 15.73
14:57:12.66 +21:00:25.03 15.74
14:56:52.84 +21:00:58.82 14.86
The photometry is based on nearby stars from the USNO-B1.0 catalog (see above) and has not been corrected for the Galactic extinction.
GCN Circular 39672
Samuele Ronchini (PSU), James DeLaunay (PSU), Aaron Tohuvavohu (Caltech), Gayathri Raman (PSU), Jamie A. Kennea (PSU), Tyler Parsotan (NASA GSFC) report:
Swift/BAT did not localize GRB 250226A onboard (T0: 2025-02-26T06:34:57.33 UTC, Fermi GCN 39479, GECAM GCN 39492, EP-WXT GCN 39482, INTEGRAL GCN 39518)
The Fermi notice, distributed in near real-time, triggered the Swift Mission Operations Center operated Gamma-ray Urgent Archiver for Novel Opportunities (GUANO; Tohuvavohu et al. 2020, ApJ, 900, 1).
Upon trigger by this notice, GUANO sent a command to the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) to save 200 seconds of BAT event-mode data from [-50,+150] seconds around the time of the burst. All the requested event mode data was delivered to the ground.
The BAT likelihood search, NITRATES (DeLaunay + Tohuvavohu 2022, ApJ, 941, 169), performed on the temporal window [T0-20 s, T0+20 s], detects the burst with a sqrt(TS) of 23.9 in a 8.192 s analysis time bin, starting at T0.
Using the NITRATES analysis, parameter estimation was performed to obtain the localization of this burst in the form of a HEALPIX Multi-Order Coverage (MOC) skymap. This localization accounts for both statistical and systematic errors. More details in the creation and calibration of these maps will soon be published (DeLaunay et al. 2025. in prep)
The 90% credible area is 1,797 deg2 and the 50% credible area is 312 deg2. The integrated probability inside the coded field of view is <1%.
The joint NITRATES+GBM localization has a 90% credible area of 178 deg2 and a 50% credible area of 51 deg2, and is consistent with the external position by EP-WXT (GCN 39482)
A plot of the probability skymap can be viewed here:
The probability skymap and joint skymap files can be downloaded from the links here
Instructions on how to read and manipulate this map can be found here:
https://guano.swift.psu.edu/documentation
More details about this burst can be found on the trigger report page here:
https://guano.swift.psu.edu/trigger_report?id=762244532
GUANO is a fully autonomous, extremely low latency, spacecraft commanding pipeline designed for targeted recovery of BAT event mode data around the times of compelling astrophysical events to enable more sensitive GRB searches.
A live reporting of Swift/BAT event data recovered by GUANO can be found at: https://www.swift.psu.edu/guano/
GCN Circular 39554
M. Tanasan (NARIT), L. Nyambane (UMN), H. Muenter (UMN), C. Andrade (UMN), Y. Rajabov (UBAI), F. Magnani (CPPM), M. Masek (FZU), S. Alshamsi (AUS), W. Corradi (LNA), T. Almeida (LNA), K. Noysena (NARIT), L. Fraga (LNA), N. Sasaki (LNA), A. Takey (NRIAG), Y. Hendy (NRIAG), M. Abdelkareem (NRIAG), E. Elhosseiny F. Navarete (NOIRLab/SOAR), S. Antier (OCA/IJCLAB), M. Coughlin (UMN), S. Karpov (FZU), P. Hello (IJCLAB), P-A. Duverne (APC), T. Pradier (Unistra/IPHC), N. Guessoum (AUS) on behalf of the GRANDMA and Kilonova-Catcher collaborations:
The GRANDMA collaboration imaged the field of a fast X-ray transient GRB 250226A discovered by Fermi GBM (Fermi GBM team, GCN circ. 39479) and EP WXT and FXT (Jiang et al., GCN circ. 39482; Jiang et al., GCN circ. 39513) and detected also by GECAM-B (Zhang et al., GCN circ. 39492) and INTEGRAL SPI-ACS and PICsIT (Thakur et al., GCN circ. 39518).
GRANDMA observations were performed at RA = 224.2651, DEC = 20.9756 with the OPD/60cm, TRT-SBO, KAO, Lisnyky/AZT-8 and AbAO-T70 telescopes starting ~0.4 days post T0 in the R and i' bands.
We detect the optical afterglow and report some of the observations at the following magnitudes:
| T-start (UTC) | Magnitude | UL (5sigma) | Filter | Telescope |
| 2025-02-26 17:19:21 | 21.5 +/- 0.2 | 21.5 | R (AB) | TRT-SBO |
| 2025-02-27 01:39:46 | 21.15+/-0.15 | 22.6 | i’ (AB) | KAO |
| 2025-02-27 05:28:50 | 22.0+/-0.25 | 21.8 | R (AB) | OPD/60cm |
Our findings were consistent with the MEPHISTO telescope (Zou et al., GCN 39511), the Xinglong Observatory ( Jiang et al., GCN 39515), and the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope network (LCOGT) (Poidevin et al., GCN 39524).
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 and PS1 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 39542
D. Svinkin, D. Frederiks, A. Lysenko, A. Ridnaia,
A. Tsvetkova, M. Ulanov, and T. Cline
on behalf of the Konus-Wind team, report:
The long-duration GRB 250226A
(Fermi-GBM detection: The Fermi GBM team, GCN 39479;
Pathak and Meegan, GCN 39530;
EP-WXT detection: Jiang et al., GCN 39482;
INTEGRAL SPI-ACS and PICsIT detection: Thakur et al., GCN 39518)
triggered Konus-Wind at T0=23700.486 s UT (06:35:00.486).
The burst light curve shows a single emission episode
which starts at ~T0-5 s and has a total duration of ~32 s.
The emission is seen up to ~1 MeV.
The Konus-Wind light curve of this GRB is available at
http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/GRBs/GRB250226_T23700/
As observed by Konus-Wind, the burst
had a fluence of 1.17(-0.21,+0.28)x10^-5 erg/cm2,
and a 64-ms peak flux, measured from T0+0.438 s,
of 3.45(-1.09,+1.18)x10^-6 erg/cm2/s
(both in the 20 keV - 10 MeV energy range).
The time-averaged spectrum of the burst
(measured from T0 to T0+24.832 s)
is best fit in the 20 keV - 10 MeV range
by the GRB (Band) model with the following parameters:
the low-energy photon index alpha = -0.16(-0.47,+0.68),
the high energy photon index beta = -2.25(-0.38,+0.24),
the peak energy Ep = 143(-28,+35) keV
(chi2 = 64/97 dof).
The spectrum near the maximum count rate
(measured from T0 to T0+8.448 s)
is best fit in the 20 keV - 10 MeV range
by the GRB (Band) model with the following parameters:
the low-energy photon index alpha = -0.60(-0.36,+0.54),
the high energy photon index beta = -2.00(-8,+0.17),
the peak energy Ep = 190(-53,+331) keV
(chi2 = 86/97 dof).
Assuming the redshift z=3.315 (Zhu et al. GCN 39487)
and a standard cosmology with H_0 = 67.3 km/s/Mpc, Omega_M = 0.315,
and Omega_Lambda = 0.685 (Planck Collaboration, 2014),
we estimate the following rest-frame parameters:
the isotropic energy release E_iso is 2.80(-0.51,+0.67)x10^53 erg,
the peak luminosity L_iso is 3.56(-1.12,+1.22)x10^53 erg/s,
the rest-frame peak energy of the time-averaged spectrum
Ep,i,z is 616(-119,+151) keV and the spectrum near the maximum count rate
Ep,p,z is 822(-229,+1427) keV.
With the obtained estimates, GRB 250226A is inside 68% prediction bands for
both the 'Amati' and the 'Yonetoku' relations derived for the sample of >300 long
KW GRBs with known redshifts (Tsvetkova et al., 2017; Tsvetkova et al., 2021),
see http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/GRBs/GRB250226_T23700/GRB250226A_rest_frame.pdf
All the quoted errors are at the 68% confidence level.
All the quoted values are preliminary.
GCN Circular 39540
N. Pankov (HSE, IKI), A. M. Abdelaziz (NRIAG), M. Abdelkareem (NRIAG), E. Amin (NRIAG), A. Pozanenko (IKI) report on behalf of IKI GRB-FuN:
We performed optical observations of the field of GRB 250226A (The Fermi GBM team, GCN 39479; V.Lipunov et. al, GCN 39481; Jiang et. al, GCN 39482; An et. al, GCN 39486; Zhu et. al, GCN 39487; Magnani et. al, GCN 39488; Li et. al, GCN 39489; Li et. al, GCN 39492; Aryan et. al, GCN 39509; Zou et. al, GCN 39511; Jiang et. al, GCN 39513; Li et. al, GCN 39514; Junjie-Jin et. al, GCN 39515; Thakur et. al, GCN 39518; Poidevin et. al, GCN 39524; Pathak et. al, GCN 39530; Pankov et. al, GCN 39539) in the R filter with the 1.88-meter telescope of the Kottamia Astronomical Observatory (KAO). The observations started on (UT) 2025-02-28 00:30:36, i.e. ~1.78 days since trigger and consists of 39x150 sec exposures. We do not detect the optical counterpart in the stacked image. The preliminary upper limit is as follows:
Date UT start t-T0 Exp. Filter UL(3sigma)
(mid, days) (s)
2025-02-28 00:30:36 1.78084 39*150 R 22.3
The photometry is based on nearby stars from the USNO-B1.0 catalog and has not been corrected for the Galactic extinction.
GCN Circular 39539
N. Pankov (HSE, IKI), R. Ya. Inasaridze (AbAO), A. Pozanenko (IKI) report on behalf of IKI-GRB-FuN:
We performed optical observations of the field of GRB 250226A (The Fermi GBM team, GCN 39479; V.Lipunov et. al, GCN 39481; Jiang et. al, GCN 39482; An et. al, GCN 39486; Zhu et. al, GCN 39487; Magnani et. al, GCN 39488; Li et. al, GCN 39489; Li et. al, GCN 39492; Aryan et. al, GCN 39509; Zou et. al, GCN 39511; Jiang et. al, GCN 39513; Li et. al, GCN 39514; Junjie-Jin et. al, GCN 39515; Thakur et. al, GCN 39518