GRB 250716A
GCN Circular 41109
Subject
Konus-Wind detection of GRB 250716A
Date
2025-07-17T15:32:45Z (3 months ago)
From
Dmitry Svinkin at Ioffe Institute <svinkin@mail.ioffe.ru>
Via
Web form
D. Svinkin, D. Frederiks, A. Lysenko, A. Ridnaia,
A. Tsvetkova, M. Ulanov, and T. Cline
on behalf of the Konus-Wind team, report:
The bright, long-duration GRB 250716A
(Fermi-GBM detection: Fermi GBM team, GCN 41099;
Mukherjee and Meegan, GCN 41102)
triggered Konus-Wind at T0=5348.122 s UT (01:29:08.122).
The burst light curve shows a multipeaked structure
which starts at ~T0-91 s and has a total duration of ~235 s.
The emission is seen up to ~20 MeV.
The Konus-Wind light curve of this GRB is available at
http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/GRBs/GRB250716_T05348/
As observed by Konus-Wind, the burst
had a fluence of 2.39(-0.09,+0.09)x10^-4 erg/cm2,
and a 64-ms peak flux, measured from T0+2.544 s,
of 4.26(-0.33,+0.33)x10^-5 erg/cm2/s
(both in the 20 keV - 10 MeV energy range).
The time-averaged spectrum of the burst
(measured from T0 to T0+88.064 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 = -1.25(-0.04,+0.04),
the high energy photon index beta = -1.78(-0.04,+0.03),
the peak energy Ep = 554(-84,+93) keV
(chi2 = 124/97 dof).
The spectrum near the maximum count rate
(measured from T0+0.256 to T0+4.096 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 = -0.78(-0.06,+0.07),
the high energy photon index beta = -1.59(-0.03,+0.03),
the peak energy Ep = 726(-113,+139) keV
(chi2 = 106/86 dof).
All the quoted errors are at the 68% confidence level.
All the quoted values are preliminary.
GCN Circular 41108
Subject
GRB 250716A: Swift-XRT afterglow detection
Date
2025-07-17T15:12:43Z (3 months ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@star.le.ac.uk>
Via
email
M.A. Williams (PSU), S. Dichiara (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), J.P. Osborne
(U. Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), A.P. Beardmore (U.
Leicester), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), S. Campana (INAF-OAB), A. Melandri
(INAF-OAR) and P.A. Evans (U. Leicester) reports on behalf of the
Swift-XRT team:
Swift-XRT has performed follow-up observations of the
Fermi/GBM-detected burst GRB 250716A. We searched for X-ray sources in
2.6 ks of Photon Counting (PC) mode data. The total exposure at the
position of the afterglow (see below) is 2.6 ks, obtained between
T0+79.5 ks and T0+91.7 ks.
An uncatalogued X-ray source is detected within the GOTO error region
and is above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit at this position, and is
therefore likely the GRB afterglow. Using 2790 s of PC mode data and 2
UVOT images, we find an enhanced XRT position (using the XRT-UVOT
alignment and matching UVOT field sources to the USNO-B1 catalogue):
RA, Dec = 66.77171, -46.56649 which is equivalent to:
RA (J2000): 04h 27m 05.21s
Dec(J2000): -46d 33' 59.4"
with an uncertainty of 2.7 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence). This
position is 1.9 arcsec from the GOTO position.
The light curve can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay
index of alpha=2.755 (+0.015, -0.755).
A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.22 (+0.30, -0.27). The
best-fitting absorption column is 6.9 (+6.4, -5.2) x 10^20 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 1.2 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Willingale et al.
2013). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion
factor deduced from this spectrum is 3.0 x 10^-11 (3.7 x 10^-11) erg
cm^-2 count^-1.
A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column: 6.9 (+6.4, -5.2) x 10^20 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 1.2 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: 1.8 sigma
Photon index: 2.22 (+0.30, -0.27)
The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis of the likely afterglow
are at https://www.swift.ac.uk/ToO_GRBs/00021845/Source1.php.
The results of the full analysis of the XRT observations are available
at https://www.swift.ac.uk/ToO_GRBs/00021845.
This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
GCN Circular 41106
Subject
GRB 250716A: Lesedi Detection of Fading Optical Transient GOTO25eyp
Date
2025-07-17T11:01:22Z (3 months ago)
From
Amit Kumar at Royal Holloway - UoL/ U of Warwick, UK <amitkundu515@gmail.com>
Via
Web form
Amit Kumar (RHUL), Nikita Rawat (SAAO), David Buckley (SAAO), Justyn R. Maund (RHUL), Danny Steeghs (Warwick) and Raya Dastidar (UNAB) report:
We observed the optical transient GOTO25eyp (AT 2025rhc; Rayson et al., GCN 41103), a candidate counterpart to GRB 250716A (Fermi GBM Team, GCNs 41099, 41102), using the 1-m Lesedi telescope at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), Sutherland, South Africa. Observations were conducted on 2025 July 17 between 03:08:39 and 04:09:30 UT (~25.66 to ~26.67 hours post-trigger) in g’, r’, i’, and z’ bands (3×360s in g and z, 3×300s in r and i bands).
GOTO25eyp was clearly detected in all individual exposures across the four filters. Preliminary aperture photometry yields the following magnitudes in g’ and r’ bands:
DATE-OBS T-T0 (hrs) Filter Exp (s) Magnitude (AB)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2025-07-17T03:08:39 25.66 g’ 360s 18.95 ± 0.09
2025-07-17T03:26:56 25.96 r’ 300s 18.67 ± 0.07
These observations indicate a decline of ~0.6 mag over ~8.4 hours since the initial detection reported by GOTO. This fading behaviour suggests a transient origin for GOTO25eyp and is broadly consistent with the temporal evolution expected from a GRB afterglow. We note that we are considering the GOTO L-band (400–700 nm), which approximates the mean wavelength coverage of the g and r filters.
Photometric calibration was performed using reference stars from the SDSS catalogue. Follow-up observations are ongoing, and further analysis is in progress.
Data were obtained using the 1-m Lesedi robotic telescope at the SAAO, equipped with the Mookodi low-resolution spectrograph and imager operating in fully robotic imaging mode. We thank the SAAO Instrumentation and Operations (IO) team for their continued support.
GCN Circular 41104
Subject
GRB 250716A: Swift ToO observations
Date
2025-07-16T23:30:19Z (3 months ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@star.le.ac.uk>
Via
email
P. A. Evans (U. Leicester) reports on behalf of the Swift team:
Swift has initiated a ToO observation of the Fermi/GBM-detected event
GRB 250716A. Automated analysis of the XRT data will be presented online at
https://www.swift.ac.uk/ToO_GRBs/00021845
Any uncatalogued X-ray sources detected in this analysis will be
reported on this website and via GCN COUNTERPART notices. These are
not necessarily related to the Fermi/GBM event. Any X-ray source
considered to be a probable afterglow candidate will be reported via a
GCN Circular after manual consideration.
Details of the XRT automated analysis methods are detailed in Evans et
al. (2007, A&A, 469, 379; 2009, MNRAS, 397, 1177 and 2014, ApJS, 210, 8).
This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
GCN Circular 41103
Subject
GRB 250716A: GOTO tentative optical counterpart candidate
Date
2025-07-16T20:30:19Z (3 months ago)
From
Ben Rayson at University of Leicester <br155@leicester.ac.uk>
Via
Web form
B. Rayson, D. O’Neill, B. P. Gompertz, A. Kumar, R. Starling, K. Ackley, M. J. Dyer, J. Lyman, K. Ulaczyk, B. Godson, D. Steeghs, D. K. Galloway, V. Dhillon, P. O'Brien, G. Ramsay, K. Noysena, R. Kotak, R. P. Breton, L. K. Nuttall, and J. Casares report on behalf of the GOTO collaboration:
We report on optical observations with the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO; Steeghs et al. 2022, Dyer et al. 2024) in response to GRB 250716A (Fermi GBM Team, GCNs 41099