GRB 251002A
GCN Circular 42173
M. G. Bernardini (INAF-OAB, LUPM), U. Jacob, F. Piron (LUPM), M. Brunet, O. Godet (IRAP), N. Dagoneau, B. Hubert, S. Schanne, A. Saccardi, D. Gotz (CEA/Irfu)
Using the event-by-event data downloaded through the X-band ground stations, we report further analysis of ECLAIRs observations of GRB 251002A (SVOM burst-id sb25100211).
The burst that triggered ECLAIRs onboard (Saccardi et al., GCN Circ. 42060) consists of a multiple peak structure with a duration of T90 = (8.2 -0.3/+1.82) s in the 4-120 keV energy band. After this main emission episode, the source is still visible through image deconvolution as a dim source up to about 30 s after T0 (T0 = 2025-10-02T20:14:54 s).
The time-averaged spectrum from T0-3 s to T0+8 s in the energy range 5-120 keV is best fitted by a cutoff power law model with index (0.72 +0.18/-0.20) and E0 = (79 +68/-26) keV. With this model, the total 4-120 keV fluence is (2.57 +/-0.03)e-6 erg/cm^2.
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: M. G. Bernardini (INAF-OAB, LUPM) (maria.bernardini at inaf.it)
GCN Circular 42125
R. Konno (WIS), S. Garrappa (WIS), E. A. Zimmerman (WIS), A. Horowicz (WIS), E. O. Ofek (WIS), S. Ben-Ami (WIS), D. Polishook (WIS), O. Yaron (WIS), S. Fainer (WIS), A. Krassilchtchikov (WIS), Y. M. Shani (WIS), E. Segre (WIS), A. Gal-Yam (WIS), and S. Spitzer (WIS) on behalf of the LAST Collaboration
We report observations of GRB 251002A (Saccardi et al. GCN 42060), detected by SVOM, with the Large Array Survey Telescope (LAST; Ofek et al. 2023 PASP 135, 5001; Ben-Ami et al. 2023 PASP 135, 5002).
We observe the field of GRB 251002A using 4 divergent telescopes, each with a FoV of 7.4 deg^2 and no filter (clear - similar to the GAIA Bp band) over several epochs. In each epoch, we coadd 20 images with each of 20s exposure. We clearly detect the optical counterpart reported by Palmerio et al. GCN 42061; Turpin et. al, GCN 42062; Jelinek et. al, GCN 42063; Juliá-Maroto et. al, GCN 42064; Moskvitin et. al, GCN 42065; Perez-Garcia et. al, GCN 42066; Saccardi et. al, GCN 42076; Mandarakas et. al, GCN 42077; Cao et. al, GCN 42078; Schneider et. al, GCN 42080; Pankov et. al, GCN 42081; Leonini et. al, GCN 42082; Odeh et. al, GCN 42087; Wortley et. al, GCN 42091; Shilling, GCN 42099; Calapai & Giorgio, GCN 42101; Pankov et. al, GCN 42110.
The earliest detection with a 20x20s exposure image is confirmed at 2025-10-02 20:48:23 UTC (T-T0=0.55h) at an AB magnitude of 18.53 +/- 0.05.
LAST is a survey telescope array of the Weizmann Astrophysical Observatory (https://www.weizmann.ac.il/wao/).
GCN Circular 42110
N. Pankov (HSE, IKI), A. Pozanenko (IKI), E. Klunko (ISTP) report on behalf of IKI-GRB-FuN:
We performed optical observations of the field of GRB 251002A detected by SVOM (Saccardi et. al, GCN 42060) in the R-filter with the AZT-33IK 1.5m telescope of the Sayan Solar Observatory (Mondy). The observations began on 2025-10-03 17:00 UT, i.e. ~0.88 days since trigger and consisted of 30x120 s exposures. The optical source found by SVOM (Palmerio et. al, GCN 42061) at z = 2.178 (Saccardi et. al, GCN 42076) and also observed by (Turpin et. al, GCN 42062; Jelinek et. al, GCN 42063; Juliá-Maroto et. al, GCN 42064; Moskvitin et. al, GCN 42065; Perez-Garcia et. al, GCN 42066; Saccardi et. al, GCN 42076; Mandarakas et. al, GCN 42077; Cao et. al, GCN 42078; Schneider et. al, GCN 42080; Pankov et. al, GCN 42081; Leonini et. al, GCN 42082; Odeh et. al, GCN 42087; Wortley et. al, GCN 42091; Shilling, GCN 42099; Calapai & Giorgio, GCN 42101) is detected in the co-add image of 30x120 s. Preliminary photometry and observation details are presented below:
Date UT start t-T0 Exp. Filter OT Err. UL
(mid,days) (nxs) (3sigma)
2025-10-03 17:00:32 0.88586 30x120 R 20.96 0.12 22.0
The photometry was calibrated using reference stars from (Moskvitin et. al, GCN 42065) and not corrected for the Galactic extinction.
GCN Circular 42109
Xue-Yuan Zao, Zheng-Hang Yu, Cheng-Kui Li, Shao-Lin Xiong, and Chao Zheng report on behalf of the Insight-HXMT team:
At 2025-10-02T20:14:52.800 (T0), Insight-HXMT/HE detected a long burst GRB 251002A, which is also detected by Fermi/GBM (Jacob Smith et al., GCN #42093) and SVOM/ECLAIRs (A. Saccardi et al., GCN #42060).
The Insight-HXMT/HE light curve mainly consists of multiple pulses with a T90 of 13.8 +2.3/-3.1 s. The 1s peak rate, measured from T0+6.050 s, is 1080 cnts/sec. The total counts from this burst is 4528 counts.
The HXMT/HE light curve can be found here:
https://www.bursthub.cn//admin/static/hxmtgrb251002A.png
All measurements above are made with the CsI detectors operating in the regular mode with the energy range of about 30-1000 keV (deposited energy). Only gamma-rays with energy greater than about 200 keV can penetrate the spacecraft and leave signals in the CsI detectors installed inside of the telescope.
Insight-HXMT is the first Chinese space X-ray telescope, which was funded jointly by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). More information about it could be found at: http://www.hxmt.org.
GCN Circular 42108
Xue-Yuan Zao, Zheng-Hang Yu, Cheng-Kui Li, Shao-Lin Xiong, and Chao Zheng report on behalf of the Insight-HXMT team:
At 2025-10-02T20:14:52.800 (T0), Insight-HXMT/HE detected a long burst GRB 251002A, which is also detected by Fermi/GBM (Jacob Smith et al., GCN #42093) and SVOM/ECLAIRs (A. Saccardi et al., GCN #42060).
The Insight-HXMT/HE light curve mainly consists of multiple pulses with a T90 of 13.8 +2.3/-3.1 s. The 1s peak rate, measured from T0+6.050 s, is 1080 cnts/sec. The total counts from this burst is 4528 counts.
The HXMT/HE light curve can be found here:
https://www.bursthub.cn//admin/static/hxmtgrb251002A.png
All measurements above are made with the CsI detectors operating in the regular mode with the energy range of about 30-1000 keV (deposited energy). Only gamma-rays with energy greater than about 200 keV can penetrate the spacecraft and leave signals in the CsI detectors installed inside of the telescope.
Insight-HXMT is the first Chinese space X-ray telescope, which was funded jointly by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). More information about it could be found at: http://www.hxmt.org.
GCN Circular 42105
Geoffrey Mo (Caltech/Carnegie), Tomas Ahumada (Caltech), Viraj Karambelkar (Columbia/CCA), Benjamin Schneider (LAM), Robert Stein (UMD), Danielle Frostig (CfA), Nathan Lourie (MIT), Robert Simcoe (MIT), and Mansi Kasliwal (Caltech) report:
We observed the field of GRB 251002A (Saccardi et al., GCN 42060; Sun et al., GCN 42075; Kenya et al., GCN 42084; Smith et al., GCN 42093) in the near-infrared J band with the Palomar 1-m telescope, equipped with the 1.2-square degree WINTER camera (Lourie et al. 2020, Frostig et al. 2024).
Observations began at 2025-10-03T03:49:03 UTC in the J band (~7.6 hours after the GRB trigger), consisting of 15 x 120 s exposures. The images were processed using the WINTER data reduction pipeline implemented with mirar (https://github.com/winter-telescope/mirar, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13352565).
We do not detect a source at the optical counterpart location (Palmerio et al., GCN 42061; Turpin et al., GCN 42062; Jelinek et al., GCN 42063; Juliá-Maroto et al., GCN 42064; Moskvitin et al., GCN 42065; Perez-Garcia et al., GCN 42066; Senik et al., GCN 42067; Saccardi et al., GCN 42076; Mandarakas et al., GCN 42077; Cao et al., GCN 42078; Schneider et al., GCN 42080; Pankov et al., GCN 42081; Leonini et al., GCN 42082; Odeh et al., GCN 42087; Wortley et al., GCN 42091; Shilling et al., GCN 42099; Calapai et al., GCN 42101). We obtain the following 5-sigma upper limit: J ~ 19.2 mag (AB).
WINTER (Wide-field INfrared Transient ExploreR) is a partnership between MIT and Caltech, housed at Palomar Observatory, and funded by NSF MRI, NSF AAG, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.
GCN Circular 42101
Giovanni Calapai at Calapai Astronomical Observatory, Massa S. Giorgio, (Messina) Italy
Member of: GRB/UAI Gamma Ray Burst Section of Unione Astrofili Italiani.
Report:
We observed the field of GRB 251002A detected by SVOM/ECLAIRs (Saccardi et al., GCN 42060) with the 11 inches Schmidt-Cassegrain (Celestron 11) telescope F/D=6,3.
The observations were started at 2025-10-02 22:27:43 UT (approximately 2.21 hours after burst) stacking a sets of unfiltered CCD image. The observations were carried out with sky disturbed by passing clouds, and Moon (illumination: 78%, distance: 57°).
The OT was detected at the following position:
RA (J2000.0) 00h 55m 37.91s
Decl. (J2000.0) -05° 34' 01.42"
Photometry was obtained using nearby PanSTARRS stars as follows:
Observation Mid-Time T-T0 (hr) Exposure Filter Mag. Mag. err.
2025-10-02 23:08:13 UT 2.89 42x60s CR 19.16 +/-0.08
Magnitude was calibrated with the nearby PanSTARRS stars converted using Lupton (2005) equations.
No correction for galactic dust extinction was applied.
Our observations are consistent with other already reported Palmerio et al. (GCN 42061); Turpin et al. (GCN 42062); Jelinek et al. (GCN 42063); Juliá-Maroto et al. (GCN 42064); Moskvitin et al. (GCN 42065); Perez-Garcia et al. (GCN 42066); Saccardi et al. (GCN 42076); Mandarakas et al. (GCN 42077); Cao et al. (42078); Schneider et al. (GCN 42080); Pankov et al. (GCN 42081); Leonini et al. (GCN 42082); Odeh et al. (GCN 42087); Wortley et al. (GCN 42091); Shilling (GCN 42099).
The message may be cited.
GCN Circular 42099
S.P.R. Shilling (Lancaster U.) reports on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team:
The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 251002A in the U band for a total of 1.5 ks, starting 3.6 ks after the SVOM/ECLAIRs trigger (Saccardi et al., GCN Circ. 42060).
A source is detected in the U band at a position that is consistent with other detections by other instruments in the optical (Palmerio et al., GCN 42061; Turpin et al., GCN 42062; Jelinek et al., GCN 42063; Julia-Maroto et al., GCN 42064; Moskvitin et al., GCN 42065; Perez-Garcia et al., GCN 42606; Senik et al., GCN 42067; Saccardi et al., GCN 42076; Mandarakas et al., GCN 42077; Cao et al., GCN 42078; Schneider et al., GCN 42080; Pankov et al., GCN 42081; Leonini et al., GCN 42082; Odeh et al., GCN 42087; Wortley et al., GCN 42091).
Preliminary detections using the UVOT photometric system (Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the stacked U band images are:
Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag
U 3628 9263 1476 19.02 +/- 0.08
The magnitude reported here is not corrected for Galactic extinction.
GCN Circular 42093
Jacob Smith (UAH), O. Mukherjee (USRA) and C. Meegan (UAH) report on behalf of
the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor Team:
"At 20:14:51.01 UT on 02 October 2025, the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM)
triggered and located GRB 251002A (trigger 781128896/251002844).
which was also detected by SVOM/ECLAIRs (A. Saccardi et al. 2025, GCN 42060).
The Fermi GBM on-ground location is consistent with the SVOM/ECLAIRs position.
VLT/X-shooter detected a spectroscopic redshift of z = 2.178 (A. Saccardi et al. 2025, GCN 42076).
The angle from the Fermi LAT boresight is 53 degrees.
The GBM light curve multiple emission episodes with a duration (T90)
of about 26 s (50-300 keV). The time-averaged spectrum
from T0-6.9 to T0+14.6 s is best fit by
a power law function with an exponential high-energy cutoff.
The power law index is -0.88 +/- 0.07 and the cutoff energy,
parameterized as Epeak, is 180 +/- 10 keV.
The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is
(4.6 +/- 0.2)E-06 erg/cm^2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured
starting from T0+7.9 s in the 10-1000 keV band is 7.1 +/- 0.2 ph/s/cm^2.
A Band function fits the spectrum equally well
with Epeak= 140 +/- 20 keV, alpha = -0.7 +/- 0.1 and beta = -2.2 +/- 0.1.
The spectral analysis results presented above are preliminary;
final results will be published in the GBM GRB Catalog:
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/fermi/fermigbrst.html
For Fermi GBM data and info, please visit the official Fermi GBM Support Page:
https://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/access/gbm/"
GCN Circular 42091
M. E. Wortley, B. P. Gompertz, D. O’Neill, G. Ramsay, R. Starling, M. Kennedy, B. Godson, J. Lyman, K. Ackley, M. J. Dyer, K. Ulaczyk, A. Kumar,, D. Steeghs, D. K. Galloway, V. Dhillon, P. O'Brien, K. Noysena, R. Kotak, R. P. Breton, L. K. Nuttall, and J. Casares report on behalf of the GOTO collaboration:
We report on observations with the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO; Steeghs et al. 2022, Dyer et al. 2024) that serendipitously covered the field of GRB 251002A (Saccardi et al., GCN 42060) during survey operations.
We detect the optical counterpart (Palmerio et al., GCN 42061; Turpin et al., GCN 42062; Jelinek et al., GCN 42063; Julia-Maroto et al., GCN 42064; Moskvitin et al., GCN 42065; Perez-Garcia et al., GCN 42606; Senik et al., GCN 42067; Saccardi et al., GCN 42076; Mandarakas et al., GCN 42077; Cao et al., GCN 42078; Schneider et al., GCN 42080; Pankov et al., GCN 42081; Leonini et al., GCN 42082; Kennea et al., GCN 42084; Odeh et al., GCN 42087) in GOTO L-band (400-700 nm) imaging taken at 2025-10-03 01:03:06 UT (4.80h post-trigger) consisting of 4x45s exposures. The measured AB magnitude is L = 19.87 ± 0.31.
Magnitudes were calibrated using ATLAS-REFCAT2 (Tonry et al. 2018) and are not corrected for Galactic extinction.
GOTO (https://goto-observatory.org) is a network of telescopes that is principally funded by the STFC and operated at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Spain, and Siding Spring Observatory in NSW, Australia, on behalf of a consortium including the University of Warwick, Monash University, Armagh Observatory & Planetarium, the University of Leicester, the University of Sheffield, the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT), the University of Turku, the University of Portsmouth, the University of Manchester and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC).
GCN Circular 42087
Mohammad Odeh (Al-Khatim Observatory, AKO, operated by the International
Astronomical Center in Abu Dhabi, UAE), and Shaikha Alshamsi, and Nidhal
Guessoum (American University of Sharjah, UAE), report:
We observed the field of GRB 251002A detected by SVOM/ECLAIRs (Saccardi et
al., GCN 42060), using our 0.36m f/7.7 robotic telescope. The observation
session began on 02 October 2025 at 21:08 UT, with a midpoint at 21:44 UT,
approximately 1.49 hours after the trigger.
We obtained 20 exposures of 180 seconds each using the Ic filter. The
optical afterglow was detected at:
R.A. (J2000): 00:55:38.0
Dec. (J2000): -05:34:01.9
Our detection is consistent with the results of (Palmerio et al., GCN
42061), (Turpin et al., GCN 42062), (Jelinek et al., GCN 42063),
(Perez-Fournon et al., GCN 42064), (Moskvitin et al., GCN 42065),
(Perez-Garcia et al., GCN 42066), (Lipunov et al., GCN 42067), (Saccardi et
al., GCN 42076), (Mandrakas et al., GCN 42077), (Cao et al., GCN 42078),
(Schneider et al., GCN 42080), (Pankov et al., GCN 42081) and (Leonini et
al., GCN 42082).
The following observation was calculated using the Atlas catalogue as a
reference:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ObsTime (mid), Exposure (sec), Filter, Mag
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2025-10-02T21:44:20Z, 20x180s (stacked), Ic, 18.57 +/- 0.27
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The magnitude is not corrected for galactic extinction.
GCN Circular 42084
J.A. Kennea (PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester),
J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), M.G. Bernardini
(INAF-OAB), E. Ambrosi (INAF-IASFPA), S. Lanava (PSU) and P.A. Evans
(U. Leicester) reports on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:
Swift-XRT has performed follow-up observations of GRB 251002A. We
searched for X-ray sources in 1.5 ks of Photon Counting (PC) mode
data. The total exposure at the position of the afterglow (see below)
is 1.5 ks, obtained between T0+3.6 ks and T0+9.2 ks.
Three uncatalogued X-ray sources are detected within the estimated
3-sigma SVOM/ECLAIRs error region (392 arcsec), of which one ("Source
1") is above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit at this position, and is
therefore likely the GRB afterglow. Using 1503 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 = 13.90813, -5.56678 which is equivalent to:
RA (J2000): 00h 55m 37.95s
Dec(J2000): -05d 34' 00.4"
with an uncertainty of 2.6 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence). This
position is consistent with the optical candidate (Palmerio et al. GCN
42061) and the EP-FXT X-ray candidate (Sun et al. GCN 24075).
The light curve can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay
index of alpha=1.27 (+0.28, -0.25).
A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.62 (+0.20, -0.18). The
best-fitting absorption column is 8.3 (+6.5, -2.8) x 10^20 cm^-2,
consistent with the Galactic value of 5.5 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 4.2 x 10^-11 (4.7 x
10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1.
A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column: 8.3 (+6.5, -2.8) x 10^20 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 5.5 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: <1.6 sigma
Photon index: 1.62 (+0.20, -0.18)
If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
1.27, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 0.014 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 5.9 x
10^-13 (6.5 x 10^-13) erg cm^-2 s^-1.
The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/03000125.
The results of the full analysis of the XRT observations are available
at https://www.swift.ac.uk/SVOM/SVOM_FIELD00039.
This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
GCN Circular 42082
S. Leonini, M. Freeberg (KNC), D. Turpin (CEA-Saclay/Irfu), C. Andrade(UMN), S. Antier (OCA/IJCLab), M. Coughlin (UMN),S. Karpov (FZU), P. Hello (IJCLAB), M. Pillas (IAP) on behalf of the GRANDMA/Kilonova-Catcher collaboration:
We observed the field of GRB 251002A detected by SVOM/ECLAIRs and GRM (Saccardi et al., GCN 42060) with the GRANDMA citizen science project Kilonova-catcher (KNC). Our observations were performed with the TEC160FL and iT72 telescopes operated by M. Freeberg and with the automated and remoted 0.53m Ritchey-Chretien telescope at Montarrenti Observatory (Siena, Italy, IAU code C88) operated by S. Leonini. Our observations started at TGRB+1.2hr.
In our stacked frames, subtracted from the PanSTARRS DR2 template image, we detect the optical counterpart reported by SVOM/VT (Palmerio et al., GCN 42061), LCO-1m (Turpin et al., GCN 42062), FRAM-ORM (Jelinek et al., GCN 42063), LCO-40cm (Perez-Fournon et al., GCN 42064), SAO RAS (Moskvitin et al., GCN 42065), BOOTES-6 (Perez-Garcia et al., GCN 42066