GRB 250702C, GRB 250702E, GRB 250702B, GRB 250702D, EP250702a
GCN Circular 42869
Subject
GRB 250702B: detection of the compact radio counterpart 139 days after the burst
Date
2025-11-28T12:16:56Z (23 days ago)
Edited On
2025-11-28T19:22:06Z (22 days ago)
From
ailing.wang.wal@gmail.com
Edited By
Vidushi Sharma at NASA GSFC/UMBC <vidushi.sharma@nasa.gov> on behalf of ailing.wang.wal@gmail.com
Via
Web form
Ailing Wang (IHEP), Tao An, Yuanqi Liu (SHAO), Jinjun Geng, Songbo Zhang, Xuefeng Wu (PMO), Xinwen Shu (ANU) et al. report:
We are conducting a multi-telescope, multi-epoch, multi-frequency radio campaign on GRB 250702BCD to trace its long-term afterglow evolution. Previous radio observations from other facilities have been reported by independent groups (e.g. GCNs 40983, 40985, 41053, 41059, 41061). Here we report results from Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations on 2025 November 18 in B-array configuration. The data were calibrated and imaged with standard procedures in CASA.
At C band (the central frequency of 6 GHz), we detect a radio source at the position of the known counterpart to GRB 250702B. The source is unresolved with a synthesized beam of 1.42 arcsec × 2.40 arcsec (PA = 28 deg) and has a peak flux density of ≈ 200 μJy beam⁻¹. The measured peak position is
RA (J2000) = 18:58:45.5648
Dec (J2000) = -07:52:26.235
which is consistent with previously reported radio positions of the counterpart (GCN 41053).
Complementary observations with eMERLIN and the European VLBI Network (EVN) yield flux densities consistent with the VLA measurement. This agreement indicates that the bulk of the radio emission, arising from long-lived synchrotron radiation (Levan et al. 2025, O'Connor et al. 2025), remains confined to a compact component on milliarcsecond to sub-arcsecond scales.
This late-time detection at approximately 139 days after the 2025 July 2 trigger provides an important additional point on the radio light curve and confirms the persistence of a compact radio source. The full multi-epoch, multi-resolution dataset will be used to characterize the long-lived synchrotron emission and continued long-term monitoring is scheduled.
We thank the TACs and operations staff of the VLA, eMERLIN, EVN, and ATCA for approving and supporting these observations.
GCN Circular 42145
Subject
GRB 250702B/EP250702a: JWST/NIRCam Observations
Date
2025-10-07T18:49:45Z (2 months ago)
From
Huei Sears at Rutgers University <huei.sears@rutgers.edu>
Via
Web form
H. Sears (Rutgers University), P. K. Blanchard (Harvard), R. Chornock (UC Berkeley), Nayana AJ (UC Berkeley), T. Ahumada (Caltech), K. D. Alexander (Arizona), I. Andreoni, A. Anumarlapudi, J. Carney (UNC), J. Freeburn (UNC), O. Graur (Portsmouth), X. J. Hall (CMU), E. Hammerstein (UC Berkeley), S. W. Jha (Rutgers), M. Kasliwal (Caltech), T. Laskar (Utah), R. Margutti (UC Berkeley), B. O’Connor (CMU), D. Pasham (MIT), I. Sfaradi (UC Berkeley), and Y. Yao (UC Berkeley) report:
We obtained imaging of the field of GRB 250702B/EP250702a (GCNs 40883, 40886, 40890, 40906) with JWST/NIRCam under DD program 9447 (PI: H. Sears) starting at 2025-Oct-05 02:05:52 UT (~ 95 days post Fermi Gamma-ray trigger). The images were taken in the F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, and F444W filters with exposure times of 10,049; 5024; 5024; 5024; and 5024 s, respectively.
The host galaxy of the transient has a complex morphology in the short-wavelength filters, F150W and F200W. The prominent separation between two brighter nuclear regions seen in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) F160W imaging (A. Levan et al. 2025, ApJL, 990, L28; J. Carney et al. 2025, arXiv: 2509.22784) is also visible at these shorter wavelengths. In the long wavelength filters, however, the galaxy has a smooth profile, including near the nucleus. This morphology supports the interpretation that the host is a single system with a prominent dust lane in a disk viewed nearly edge-on. Visual inspection reveals emission near the position of the transient in F150W and F200W that is not apparent in the longer wavelength filters. This excess emission is coincident with the excess flux noted in the HST F160W imaging (A. Levan et al. 2025, ApJL, 990, L28; J. Carney et al. 2025, arXiv: 2509.22784). The associated color and morphology suggests emission from an underlying star-forming region rather than solely from the transient.
We use GALFIT to subtract two Sérsic components for the long-wavelength + F200W filters and one component for the F150W filter. To place limits on any transient flux, we additionally include one point source component in all filters fixed at the location of the HAWK-I H+K source as reported in A. Levan et al. 2025, ApJL, 990, L28; R.A. (J2000) = 18h 58m 45.s 57, decl. (J2000) = –07d 52 26.2. While the excess flux noticed in the F150W and F200W imaging is ~0.15’’ offset from the HAWK-I position, we believe this is likely to be due to imprecise absolute astrometry. For completeness, we report photometry for the transient at both locations. At the HAWK-I location, we report preliminary host-galaxy subtracted, 3-sigma upper-limits of m_F444W > 25.5 AB, m_F356W > 25.7 AB, m_F277W > 26.2 AB, m_F200W > 27.8 AB, and m_F150W > 28.6 AB (faint with high uncertainty). If, instead, we force the location of the transient to be at the excess flux noted in F150W and F200W, we report preliminary detections of m_F200W = 27.97 +/- 0.32 AB and m_F150W = 29.01 +/- 0.43 AB and find similar limits in the long-wavelength filters. Of note, these magnitudes are not corrected for Galactic nor host extinction.
Further analysis is ongoing.
We thank STScI staff members Alison Vick, Ben Sunnquist, and the entire JWST team for the successful implementation of this DD program.
GCN Circular 41767
Subject
GRB 250702B: Late time Chandra observations
Date
2025-09-09T20:42:37Z (3 months ago)
From
Rob Eyles-Ferris at U of Leicester <raje1@leicester.ac.uk>
Via
Web form
R. A. J. Eyles-Ferris (U of Leicester), A. J. Levan (Radboud and Warwick), A. Martin-Carrillo (UCD), P. T. O’Brien (U of Leicester), M. De Pasquale (Univ. Messina), B. P. Gompertz (U. Birmingham), T. Laskar (Utah), D. B. Malesani (DAWN/NBI and Radboud), J. C. Rastinejad (Maryland), S. Schulze (Northwestern), N. R. Tanvir (U of Leicester), P. G. Jonker (Radboud) and D. Watson (DAWN/NBI) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
We observed the position of the gamma-ray and X-ray transient GRB 250702B/EP250702a (Fermi GBM Team, GCNs 40883, 40886, 40890; Cheng et al., GCN 40906) with the Chandra X-ray Observatory through a Director’s Discretionary Time request (PI: Eyles-Ferris) using ACIS-S. Our observation started at 2025-09-05 23:26:41 UT, approximately 65 days after the initial Fermi trigger, and lasted 39.55 ks.
At the position of GRB 250702B, we detect the X-ray counterpart (Cheng et al., GCN 40906; Kennea et al., GCN 40919; O’Connor et al., GCN 41309) with a preliminary count rate of ~3.1e-4 ct/s. Assuming the same spectrum as derived from Swift/XRT observations, this corresponds to a flux ~6.7e-15 erg/cm^2/s. This is broadly consistent with the alpha ~ 1.9 decay slope measured in both the Swift/XRT light curve and previous Chandra observations (O’Connor et al., GCN 41309). Further analysis of these data is ongoing.
We thank Pat Slane and the Chandra X-ray Center team for approving and scheduling our DDT request.
GCN Circular 41309
Subject
GRB 250702B: Chandra X-ray Detection
Date
2025-08-09T23:30:50Z (4 months ago)
From
Brendan O'Connor at Carnegie Mellon University <boconno2@andrew.cmu.edu>
Via
Web form
B. O’Connor (CMU), D. Pasham (Eureka/George Washington), I. Andreoni (UNC), J. Hare (Catholic/GSFC), X. Hall (CMU), J. Carney (UNC), A. Palmese (CMU), M. Busmann (LMU), D. Gruen (LMU), report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
We observed the position of the ultra-long X-ray and gamma-ray transient GRB 250702B (GCN #40883, #40886, #40890), also known as EP250702a (GCN #40906), with the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) through Director's Discretionary Time (PI: O'Connor). Observations were carried out with ACIS-S starting on 2025-08-09 at 05:49:28 UT, corresponding to ~38 d after the initial Fermi trigger, for a total of 27.7 ks.
We detect a clear X-ray source at the position of the infrared and radio counterparts of GRB 250702B (GCNs #40924, #41053). Adopting the best-fit spectrum from Swift/XRT (GCN #40919), we derive an unabsorbed 0.3-10 keV flux of ~3.3e-14 erg/cm^2/s. This is consistent with the extrapolation of the decay observed by Swift/XRT at earlier times (<10 days), and favors a powerlaw with temporal slope ~-1.9 as measured from the initial Fermi trigger time (GRB 250702D; GCN #40886).
Further analysis is underway.
We thank Pat Slane for approving our DDT request, and the entire staff of the Chandra X-ray Observatory for scheduling the observations.
GCN Circular 41215
Subject
GRB 250702B: SMA observations
Date
2025-08-01T22:24:26Z (5 months ago)
Edited On
2025-08-04T05:15:37Z (5 months ago)
From
lauren.rhodes@mcgill.ca
Edited By
Vidushi Sharma at NASA GSFC/UMBC <vidushi.sharma@nasa.gov> on behalf of Vidushi Sharma at NASA GSFC/UMBC <vidushi.sharma@nasa.gov>
Via
Web form