GRB 250910A, EP250910a
GCN Circular 42104
Subject
Fermi GBM Sub-Threshold Detection of GRB 250910A
Date
2025-10-04T01:34:19Z (2 months ago)
From
rhamburg@usra.edu
Via
Web form
R. Hamburg (USRA) reports on behalf of the Fermi-GBM Team:
The SVOM/ECLAIRs detected GRB 250910A on 2025-09-10 at 03:16:10 UTC (GCN 41769). GRB 250910A was also detected by EP-WXT (GCN 41776) and has a measured redshift of z = 0.592 from the VLT/X-shooter (GCN 42031). There was no Fermi-GBM onboard trigger around this event time. An automated, blind search for gamma-ray bursts below the onboard triggering threshold in Fermi-GBM identified no candidates.
The GBM Targeted Search [1], the most sensitive GBM search for GRB-like signals, identified a transient starting 12.29 seconds after the ECLAIRs trigger time, most significantly on the 16 s timescale with a post-trials false alarm rate of 3.1e-04 Hz. The Targeted Search event was found with the highest significance using a "soft" GRB spectrum (i.e., Band function with Epeak = 70 keV, alpha = -1.9, and beta = -3.7), and the GBM localization was found to be spatially consistent with the ECLAIRs location and the X-ray and optical/NIR afterglow positions (GCN 41794, GCN 41798, GCN 41799).
[1] Goldstein et al. 2019 arXiv:1903.12597
GCN Circular 42036
Subject
GRB 250910A / EP250910a: VLT limits on the possible associated supernova
Date
2025-10-01T12:16:53Z (2 months ago)
From
Ben Rayson at University of Leicester <br155@leicester.ac.uk>
Via
Web form
N. Habeeb (U. Leicester), D. B. Malesani (DAWN/NBI and Radboud), A. Martin-Carrillo (UCD), B. Rayson (U. Leicester), N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), report on behalf of the Stargate collaboration:
We obtained late-time imaging of the GRB 250910A / EP250910a field (Schneider et al., GCN 41794; Li et al., GCN 41798; see also Ma et al., GCN 41769; Liu et al., GCN 41776; Hubert et al., GCN 41842) at z = 0.592 (Saccardi et al., GCN 42031) with the ESO VLT equipped with FORS2. Observations were carried out on 2025 Oct 1.16 UT, i.e. ~21 days after the trigger, in the z and R bands.
At the position of the reported afterglow/NIR counterpart we detect a source in both filters. From photometry we measure z = 23.19 ± 0.11 (AB) and r = 23.97 ± 0.10 (AB) calibrated against nearby SkyMapper stars and not corrected for Galactic extinction (which is small, A_V = 0.05 mag). We note that a source is clearly visible at this location in the Legacy Survey images with magnitudes of z = 23.10 ± 0.20 and r = 23.73 ± 0.10 (both in AB).
Within the present uncertainties and allowing for filter differences, the fluxes are consistent with the pre-existing host-galaxy brightness. Using SN1998bw as the canonical GRB-SN template, the expected associated SN would have a magnitude of z ~ 22.8 at this epoch, implying a total host+SN flux of z ~ 22.2, which is not observed in this case. We therefore find no evidence for an optically bright SN associated with GRB 250910A / EP250910a at ~21 days post-burst (~13 days in the rest frame). The lack of an additional component on top of the host galaxy suggests that the expected SN emission would need to have approximately z < 24.1, corresponding to a SN ~3x fainter than SN1998bw. Without additional epochs for accurate template subtraction, at this moment, we cannot confirm if GRB 250910A / EP250910a truly lacks an associated SN component or if it simply suffers from some extinction.
We acknowledge excellent support from the ESO staff in Paranal, in particular Abel de Burgo Sierra and Cecilia Bustos.
GCN Circular 42031
Subject
GRB 250910A / EP250910a: VLT/X-shooter host galaxy redshift z = 0.592
Date
2025-09-30T09:22:02Z (2 months ago)
From
Andrea Saccardi at CEA/Irfu <andrea.saccardi@cea.fr>
Via
Web form
A. Saccardi (CEA/Irfu), N. Habeeb (U. Leicester), D. B. Malesani (DAWN/NBI and Radboud), B. Schneider (LAM), N. R. Tanvir (Leicester), report on behalf of the Stargate collaboration:
We observed the object visible in the Legacy Survey underlying the position of the optical/NIR afterglow (Schneider et al., GCN 41794; Li et al., GCN41798) of GRB 250910A / EP250910a (Ma et al., GCN 41769; Liu et al., GCN 41776; Hubert et al., GCN 41842) using the ESO VLT UT3 (Melipal) equipped with the X-shooter spectrograph.
A spectrum covering the wavelength range 3000-21000 AA was secured, with a total exposure time 2x1440 s in each of the UVB, VIS, and NIR arms. Our observation started at 03:01:23 UT on 2025 September 30, i.e. about 20 days after the SVOM trigger.
Emission lines are detected in the visible and near-infrared arms, which we identify as H-alpha, the [O III] 4959, 5007 doublet, H-beta, and the [O II] 3726, 3729 doublet, all at a common redshift of z = 0.592. We suggest this to be the redshift of the host galaxy of GRB 250910A / EP250910a.
We acknowledge excellent support from the ESO staff in Paranal, in particular Elisa Rita Garro, Rodrigo Romero and Jonathan Smoker.
GCN Circular 41842
Subject
GRB 250910A: SVOM/ECLAIRs refined analysis
Date
2025-09-16T16:03:05Z (3 months ago)
From
SVOM_group <svomgroup@bao.ac.cn>
Via
Web form
Baptiste Hubert, Nicolas Dagoneau, Stéphane Schanne (CEA), Jean-Luc Atteia (IRAP), Frédéric Piron (LUPM), Yinuo Ma, Donghua Zhao, Wenjin Xie (NAOC)
Using the event-by-event data downloaded through the X-band ground station, we report further analysis of ECLAIRs observations of GRB 250910A (SVOM burst-id sb25091001).
The burst that triggered ECLAIRs (GCN 41769) consists of a broad structure with a duration of T90 = 22 -2/+3 s in the 4-20 keV energy band.
The time-averaged spectrum from T0-15.5 s to T0+6.7 s (T0 = 2025-09-10T03:16:30) in the energy range 4-120 keV is best fitted by a power-law model with photon index 1.7 +/-0.2. With this model, the 4-120 keV flux is (2.2 -0.4/+0.2)e-08 erg/cm^2/s.
All the quoted errors are at the 68% confidence level.
The Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) is a China-France joint mission led by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), French Space Agency (CNES), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which is dedicated to observing gamma-ray bursts and other transient phenomena in the energetic universe. ECLAIRs was developed jointly by CNES, CEA-IRFU, CNRS-IRAP, CNRS-APC.
The SVOM/ECLAIRs point of contact for this burst is: Nicolas Dagoneau (CEA) (nicolas.dagoneau at cea.fr)
GCN Circular 41799
Subject
GRB 250910A / EP250910a: Swift-XRT afterglow detection
Date
2025-09-11T16:29:52Z (3 months ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@star.le.ac.uk>
Via
email
S. Lanava (PSU), S. Dichiara (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), J.P. Osborne (U.
Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester), M.
Perri (SSDC & INAF-OAR), V. D'Elia (SSDC & INAF-OAR), B. Sbarufatti
(INAF-OAB) and P.A. Evans (U. Leicester) reports on behalf of the
Swift-XRT team:
Swift-XRT has performed follow-up observations of GRB 250910A. We
searched for X-ray sources in 1.2 ks of Photon Counting (PC) mode
data. The total exposure at the position of the afterglow (see below)
is 1.2 ks, obtained between T0+29.5 ks and T0+30.7 ks.
An uncatalogued X-ray source is detected and is believed to be the
afterglow. Using 1195 s of PC mode data and 1 UVOT image, we find an
enhanced XRT position (using the XRT-UVOT alignment and matching UVOT
field sources to the USNO-B1 catalogue): RA, Dec = 39.80164, -39.69498
which is equivalent to:
RA (J2000): 02h 39m 12.39s
Dec(J2000): -39d 41' 41.9"
with an uncertainty of 8.4 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence). This source
is consistent with the position reported by EP/FXT (Liu et al., GCN
41776) and with the optical/NIR source detected with VLT (Schneider et
al., GCN 41794) and SVOM/VT (Li et al., GCN 41798). We cannot determine
at the present time whether the source is fading.
The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/03000083.
The results of the full analysis of the XRT observations are available
at https://www.swift.ac.uk/SVOM/SVOM_FIELD00036.
This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
GCN Circular 41798
Subject
GRB 250910A / EP250910a: SVOM/VT afterglow confirmation
Date
2025-09-11T15:27:28Z (3 months ago)
From
Huali Li at at NAOC, SVOM <lhl@nao.cas.cn>
Via
Web form
H.L. Li (NAOC), Y.N. Ma, L.P. Xin, Y. L. Qiu, C. Wu, Z.H. Yao, X. H. Han, J. Wang, Y. Xu, P. P. Zhang, W. J. Xie, Y. J. Xiao, H. B. Cai, J. S. Deng, J. Y. Wei (NAOC), D. H. Zhao, J. Palmerio (CEA) report on behalf of the SVOM/VT team.
SVOM/VT performed an automatic slew on the burst triggered by SVOM/ECLAIRs (Ma et al., GCN 41769) and EP-WXT (Liu et al., GCN 41776). The observation with good image quality began at 2025-09-10T04:00:48 UTC, ie. 44 min post trigger in VT_B (400nm-650nm) and VT_R (650nm-1000nm) channels simultaneously.
A second ToO observation was performed to the field (Wu et al., GCN 41772; Li et al., GCN 41774; Garnichey et al., GCN 41777; Lipunov et al., GCN 41789), which stared at 2025-09-11T09:10:42 UTC, i.e., 1.24 day post trigger.
The NIR counterpart reported by VLT (Schneider et al., GCN 41794) in the errorbox of SVOM/MXT (Götz et al., GCN 41770