GRB 260924A
GCN Circular 45776
A. Gulati (University of Utah), T. Laskar (University of Utah), K. D. Alexander (University of Arizona), D. Eappachen (University of Utah), C. Christy (University of Arizona), N. Franz (University of Arizona)
We observed GRB 260924A (Fermi GBM, GCN 45712; D’Elia et al., GCN 45713) with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at multiple frequencies beginning on 2026 Sep 26 at 14:36 UT (2.6 days after the burst).
In preliminary analysis, we detect a radio counterpart at 15 GHz with a flux density of ~0.6 mJy at the position:
RA (J2000) = 08:55:03.106 +/- 0.001”
Dec (J2000) = +12.02.35.24 +/- 0.03”
This is consistent with the X-ray position (Evans et al., GCN 45715) and optical position (Izzo et al., GCN 45718; Klingler et al., GCN 45735). Further observations are planned.
We thank the VLA staff for scheduling and executing these observations.
GCN Circular 45775
N. P. M. Kuin (UCL-MSSL), L. Izzo (INAF/OACN and DARK/NBI), D. B.
Malesani (DAWN/NBI and Radboud Univ.), Noel Klingler (NASA) and
V. D'Elia (SSDC and INAF-OAR) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT
team:
Swift UVOT observed the bright GRB 260924A (D'Elia et al., GCN Circ.
45713) with an exposure time of 50 s in the UV grism, starting 258 s
after the trigger.
The data rate was large enough to cause the data buffers to overflow,
causing a drop at wavelengths longer than 4500 AA. The inherent
accuracy of the wavelength scale is limited by a 3 pixel uncertainty
and is typically 20 AA in the UV, but closer to 40 AA at 4000 AA.
The spectrum shows clear detection of continuum at wavelengths redder
than 4110 AA, but no flux at all to the blue. This is consistent with
a drop-out due to the Lyman limit at a redshift of z = 3.51 +- 0.04.
The unreliability of the spectrum above 4500 AA does not allow to look
for further features to the red. Our findings are thus overall fully
consistent with the higher-resolution spectroscopic measurement
z = 3.51 provided by Castro-Tirado (GCN Circ. 45740).
GCN Circular 45774
N. Pankov (IKI), A. Pozanenko (IKI), R. Ya. Inasaridze (AbAO), M. Zhuzhunadze (AbAO), A. Volnova (IKI), A. Moskvitin (SAO RAS) report on behalf of IKI-GRB-FuN:
We observed the field of a bright GRB 260924A (The Fermi GBM team, GCN 45712; D'Elia, GCN 45713; Salunke et al., GCN 45720; Holzmann Airasca et al., GCN 45721; Waratkar et al., GCN 45732; Yu et al., GCN 45741; Gupta et al., GCN 45750; Ridnaia et al., GCN 45751) at z=3.51 (Castro-Tirado et al., GCN 45740) with the AS-32 0.7m telescope of the Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory (AbAO) on 2 subsequent nights 2026-09-26 and 2026-09-27. The first observation has started at 00:31:30 UT, i.e, ~2 days since trigger. Both observations were taken in the R-band using a CCD-photometer. The optical afterglow (Hu et al., GCN 45717, Izzo et al., GCN 45718; Vijaykumar et al., GCN 45734; Klingler et al., GCN 45735; Ma et al., GCN 45736; Novotny et al., GCN 45743; Aryan et al., GCN 45748; Li et al., GCN 45728; Fortin et al., GCN 45759; Mo et al., GCN 45762) is detected in the co-add image of the first night, while absent in the second night co-add. Preliminary photometry and observation details are listed below:
Date UTstart Exptime t-T0 Filter OT Err. UL(3sigma)
(nxs) (days)
2026-09-26 00:31:30 68*60 1.99453 R 20.0 0.3 20.3
2026-09-27 00:16:21 90*60 2.99164 R n/d n/d 20.0
The photometry was calibrated using nearby stars from USNO-B1.0 (R2 magnitudes) and
has not been corrected for the Galactic extinction.
GCN Circular 45768
The IceCube Collaboration (http://icecube.wisc.edu/) reports:
IceCube has performed a search for track-like muon neutrino events arriving from the direction of GRB 260924A (GCN 45712) at the position determined by NOT observations of the afterglow (GCN 45718) in a time range of (-1 hour, +2 hours) from the initial trigger (GCN 45723) reported by Fermi-GBM (T0=2026-09-24 01:13:23.56 UTC) during which IceCube was collecting good quality data.
Zero track-like events are found to coincide with the position of the GRB. We accordingly derive a time-integrated muon-neutrino flux upper limit of E^2 dN/ dE = 3.5e-2 GeV cm^-2 at 90% CL, for an E^-2 power law. 90% of events IceCube would detect from a source at this declination with an E^-2 spectrum have energies between approximately 940 GeV and 1.6 PeV.
A subsequent search was performed including 2 days of data centered on the Fermi-GBM trigger (2026-09-23 01:13:23.56 UTC to 2026-09-25 01:13:23.56 UTC). In this search, we report a p-value of 1.0, consistent with background expectation. We accordingly derive a time-integrated muon neutrino flux upper limit of E^2 dN/ dE = 4.1e-2 GeV cm^-2 at 90% CL, under the assumption of an E^-2 power law.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic-kilometer neutrino detector operating at the geographic South Pole, Antarctica. The IceCube realtime alert point of contact can be reached at roc@icecube.wisc.edu.
[1] IceCube Collaboration, R. Abbasi et al., ApJ 910 4 (2021)
GCN Circular 45762
Geoffrey Mo (Carnegie/Caltech), K. De, V. Karambelkar, S. Ibrahim, D. Schiminovich (Columbia University) report:
We observed the field of GRB 260924A (Fermi GBM Team, GCN 45712; D'Elia et al., GCN 45713; Evans et al., GCN 45715; Salunke et al., GCN 45720; Holzmann Airasca et al., GCN 45721; McDermott et al., GCN 45723; Dichiara et al., GCN 45730; Waratkar et al., GCN 45732; Gupta et al., GCN 45733; Vijaykumar et al., GCN 45734; Yu et al., GCN 45741; Gupta et al., GCN 45750; Ridnaia et al., GCN 45751) in the near-infrared J and Hs bands with the MDM InfraRed Astronomy inGaas Experiment (MIRAGE) instrument on the MDM 1.3 m telescope.
Observations began at 2026-09-26T12:08:38 (+2.46 days after the GRB trigger) in the J band and 2026-09-26T12:32:07 (+2.47 days) in the Hs band, lasting 1080 s in J and 1050 s in Hs. We detect the optical counterpart (Hu et al., GCN 45717; Izzo et al., GCN 45718; Klingler et al., GCN 45735; Ma et al., GCN 45736; Castro-Tirado et al., GCN 45740; Novotny et al., GCN 45743; Aryan et al., GCN 45748; Li et al., GCN 45758; Fortin et al., GCN 45759) in the J band and set an upper limit in Hs, with the following AB magnitudes: J = 19.81 ± 0.20, Hs > 19.2.
MIRAGE is a new robotic YJHs-band near-infrared imager for the MDM 1.3m telescope. We thank the Mt Cuba Astronomical Foundation for development of MIRAGE and the MDM Observatory staff for supporting the observations.
GCN Circular 45759
Francis Fortin (IRAP), Edilberto Aguilar-Ruiz (UNAM), Stéphane Basa (UAR Pytheas), William H. Lee (UNAM), Jean-Luc Atteia (IRAP), Camila Angulo (UNAM), Dalya Akl (NYUAD), Sarah Antier (IJCLAB), Rosa L. Becerra (UNAM), Nathaniel R. Butler (ASU), Damien Dornic (CPPM), Jean-Grégoire Ducoin (CPPM), Leonardo García-García (UNAM), Ramandeep Gill (UNAM), Noémie Globus (UNAM), Marion Guelfand (CPPM), Asuka Kuwata (UNAM), Massimiliano Lincetto (CPPM), Nikos Mandarakas (LAM), Diego López-Cámara (UNAM), Francesco Magnani (CPPM), Enrique Moreno Méndez (UNAM), Margarita Pereyra (UNAM), Fredd Sánchez Álvarez (UNAM), Benjamin Schneider (LAM), Antonio de Ugarte Postigo (LAM), Alan M. Watson (UNAM) report:
We imaged the field of the Swift GRB 260924A (D’Elia et al., GCN Circ. 45713) using the DDRAGO two-channel wide-field imager on the COLIBRÍ telescope. We observed 2026-09-26T11:06:20 to 2026-09-26T12:19:36 UTC (from 57.88 to 59.12 hours after the trigger) and obtained 45 minutes of simultaneous exposure in the r and z filters.
The data were reduced and coadded with the COLIBRÍ pipeline and analysed with STDWeb/STDPipe (Karpov 2025). The photometry was calibrated using nearby stars from the PanSTARRS DR1 catalog, is in the AB system, and is not corrected for Galactic extinction.
We detected the optical counterpart reported by Hu et al., GCN Circ. 45717, Izzo et al., GCN Circ. 45718 and Klingler et al., GCN Circ. 45735, at a preliminary magnitude of:
r = 20.40 +/- 0.03
z = 20.07 +/- 0.03
We thank the staff of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional at Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, as well as the technical and engineering teams at CEA, CPPM, IRAP, LAM, OHP, OSU Pytheas, and UNAM.
COLIBRÍ is an astronomical observatory developed and operated jointly by France (AMU, CNES and CNRS) and Mexico (UNAM and SECIHTI). It is located at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico.
GCN Circular 45758
Jin-Ji Li, Zhong-Nan Dong, Jia-Qi Lin, Pu Lin, Yun Shi, Hao-Nan Yang, Hao-Ran Zhang, P H Thomas Tam, Rong-Feng Shen, Bin Ma (Sun Yat-sen University) report on behalf of the SYSU 80cm infrared telescope team:
We carried out a second epoch of J-band observations of GRB 260924A using the Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) 80 cm infrared telescope, following our previous detection reported in Ma et al. (GCN 45736). Our second-epoch observations started on 2026 September 25 at 22:00 UT, approximately 44.8 hours after the Swift/BAT trigger, and continued until 23:03 UT in the J band.
We do not detect the source at the position of the counterpart (Hu et al., GCN 45717; Izzo et al., GCN 45718; Vijaykumar et al., GCN 45734; Klingler et al., GCN 45735; Ma et al., GCN 45736; Castro-Tirado et al., GCN 45740; Yu et al., GCN 45741; Novotny et al., GCN 45743; Aryan et al., GCN 45748) in the stacked image, down to a 5-sigma limiting magnitude of J > 18.5 mag (Vega).
The photometry was calibrated against nearby stars from the 2MASS catalog and is reported in the Vega system, without correction for Galactic extinction. The SYSU 80 cm infrared telescope is operated and managed by the Department of Astronomy, Sun Yat-sen University.
Update (2026 September 28): As the observations were affected by intermittent cloud cover, we reprocessed the data using a refined image-selection and stacking procedure. We retained the 110 highest-quality frames, applied photometric normalization and sub-pixel alignment, and combined them with weights based on transparency, sky noise, and image FWHM, while rejecting anomalous pixels. In the resulting stacked image, we detect a source at the reported counterpart position with a magnitude of J = 18.60 ± 0.13 mag (Vega). The photometry was calibrated against nearby 2MASS stars and has not been corrected for Galactic extinction. We therefore revise our previously reported upper limit to this measurement.
GCN Circular 45751
A. Ridnaia, D. Frederiks, A. Lysenko, V. Panteleeva,
D. Svinkin, A. Tsvetkova, M. Ulanov, and T. Cline,
on behalf of the Konus-Wind team, report:
The long-duration GRB 260924A
(Fermi-GBM detection: Fermi GBM team, GCN 45712;
McDermott & Scotton, GCN 45723;
Swift detection: D'Elia et al., GCN 45713;
Gupta et al., GCN 45733;
AstroSat-CZTI detection: Salunke et al., GCN 45720;
Fermi-LAT detection: Airasca et al., GCN 45721;
Nustar detection: Waratkar & Grefenstette, GCN 45732;
SVOM-GRM detection: Yu et al., GCN 45741)
triggered Konus-Wind at T0=04406.079 s UT (01:13:26.079).
The burst light curve shows two separated multipeaked emission episodes.
The first episode starts at ~T0-3.5 s and has a total duration of ~212 s,
the second starts at ~T0+328 s and lasts up to ~T0+361 s.
The emission is seen up to ~8 MeV.
The Konus-Wind light curve of this GRB is available at
http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/GRBs/GRB260924_T04406/
As observed by Konus-Wind, the burst
had the total fluence of 3.83(-0.40,+0.43)x10^-4 erg/cm2,
and the 64-ms peak flux, measured from T0+108.288 s,
of 1.10(-0.16,+0.16)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+360.704 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 = -0.62(-0.11,+0.14),
the high energy photon index beta = -2.37(-0.31,+0.20),
the peak energy Ep = 497(-61,+59) keV
(chi2 = 91/97 dof).
The spectrum near the maximum count rate
(measured from T0+106.752 to T0+114.944 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 = -0.62(-0.09,+0.11),
the high energy photon index beta = -2.41(-0.23,+0.17),
the peak energy Ep = 596(-60,+63) keV
(chi2 = 82/86 dof).
Assuming the redshift z=3.510 (Castro-Tirado et al., GCN 45740)
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 1.00(-0.11,+0.11)x10^55 erg
(on a par with the most energetic to date GRB 221009A, Frederiks et al., 2023),
the peak luminosity L_iso is 1.30(-0.19,+0.19)x10^54 erg/s (one of the most
luminous GRBs to date), the rest-frame peak energy of the time-averaged spectrum
Ep,i,z is 2242(-275,+267) keV and the spectrum near the maximum count rate
Ep,p,z is 2690(-270,+285) keV.
With the obtained estimates, GRB 260924A 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/GRB260924_T04406/GRB260924A_rest_frame.pdf
All the quoted errors are at the 68% confidence level.
All the quoted values are preliminary.
GCN Circular 45750
Rahul Gupta (NASA GSFC), Peter Veres (UAH), Vikas Chand (LSU), Eric Burns (LSU), Pádraig McDermott (University College Dublin), and L. Scotton (UAH) reports:
We have estimated the isotropic-equivalent gamma-ray energy of GRB 260924A (The Fermi GBM team, GCN 45712; D'Elia et al., GCN 45713; Salunke et al., GCN 45720; Holzmann Airasca et al., GCN 45721; McDermott et al., GCN 45723; Waratkar et al., GCN 45732; Gupta et al., GCN 45733; and Yu et al., GCN 45741) using the time-integrated Fermi-GBM spectrum and the measured redshift of z = 3.51 (Castro-Tirado et al. GCN 45740). The time-averaged spectrum from T0-11.6 to T0+382.6 s is best fit by a Band function with Epeak = 645 +/- 4 keV, alpha = -0.91 +/- 0.01, and beta = -2.36 +/- 0.01 (McDermott et al., GCN 45723). Using the spectral parameters from McDermott et al., GCN 45723 and measured fluence of 2.84 × 10^-4 erg cm^-2 in the 10-1000 keV observer-frame energy range, and applying a bolometric k-correction to the 1-10,000 keV rest-frame energy range, we obtain an isotropic-equivalent gamma-ray energy of approximately 9.74 × 10^54 erg.
We adopted a flat Lambda-CDM cosmology with Omega_m = 0.286, Omega_Lambda = 0.714, and H0 = 69.6 km s^-1 Mpc^-1.
The inferred isotropic-equivalent energy places GRB 260924A among the most energetic gamma-ray bursts known. Its energetics are comparable, within the uncertainties, to those of GRB 221009A, the “BOAT” (Brightest Of All Time).
Given its extreme energetics and broad observational coverage, continued multi-wavelength observations of GRB 260924A are strongly encouraged.
GCN Circular 45748
A. Aryan (NCU), R. Gupta (NASA GSFC), K. N.-T. Ho, T.-W. Chen, C.-S. Lin (all NCU), A. K. H. Kong (NTHU), S. J. Smartt, J. Gillanders (both Oxford), S. Yang(HNAS), Y.-H. Lee, A. Sankar.K, A. Dutta, M.-H. Lee, Y.-C. Pan, C.-C. Ngeow, C.-H. Lai, H.-C. Lin, H.-Y. Hsiao, W.-J. Hou, J.-K. Guo (all NCU), Z. N. Wang, D. C. Qiang, L. L. Fan (all HNAS), Y. J. Yang (NYUAD), H.-W. Lin (UMich), K. W. Smith, H. F. Stevance, S. Srivastav, L. Rhodes (all Oxford), M. Nicholl, M. Fulton, C. Angus, A. Aamer (all QUB), T. Moore (STScI), A. Schultz and M. Huber (both IfA, Hawaii) report:
We observed the field of the GRB 260924A (The Fermi GBM team, GCN 45712; D'Elia et al., GCN 45713; Evans et al., GCN 45715; Airasca et al., GCN 45721; McDermott et al., GCN 45723; Dichiara et al., GCN 45730; Gupta et al., GCN 45733) using the 40cm SLT and 1m LOT at the Lulin observatory, as part of the Kinder collaboration (Chen et al. 2025, ApJ, 983, 86, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adb428). The first SLT epoch of observations in r-band started at 19:42 UTC on the 24th of September 2026 (MJD 61307.8207), 18.47 hr after the Fermi GBM detection.
For the SLT g-band observations, we utilized the astroalign (Beroiz et al. 2020, A&C, 32, 100384) and astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2022, ApJ, 935, 167) packages to align and stack the individual frames. In the stacked image, we detect the optical counterpart reported by Hu et al., (GCN 45717) and confirmed by Izza et al., (GCN 45718); Vijaykumar et al., (GCN 45734); Klingler et al., (GCN 45735) and Novotny et al. GCN (45743). The NIR detection is reported by Ma et al., GCN (45736). The GRB is also detected by NuSTAR (Waratkar et al., GCN 45732) and SVOM/GRM (SVOM/GRM team, GCN 45741). For the LOT r-band observations, the GRB is detected in all six individual frames, each of 300 seconds.
Moreover, we further used AutoPhOT to perform PSF photometry. The details of the observations and the measured magnitudes (in the AB system) are as follows:
Telescope | Filter | MJD (start) | t-t0 (hr) | Exposure (s) | Magnitude | avg. Seeing | med. Airmass*
SLT | g | 61307.8207 | 18.47 | 300 * 12 | 19.2 +/- 0.1 | 2".2 | 2.30
LOT | r | 61307.8328 | 18.76 | 300 * 1 | 18.38 +/- 0.04| 1".8 | 2.54
Our detections are in agreement with the reported optical counterpart magnitudes at various epochs. We aim to obtain further observations in the upcoming nights.
*for the single r-band frame, it's simply the airmass at which the frame was observed.
The presented magnitudes are calibrated using the field stars from the ATLAS-RefCat2 catalog from MAST (Tonry J. L. et al. 2018, ApJ, 867, 105). The reported magnitudes are not corrected for expected galactic extinction of A_g = 0.140 mag and A_r = 0.097 mag, in the direction of the transient (Schlafly & Finkbeiner 2011). The optical follow-up methodology of transients and details on the Lulin Observatory telescopes are presented in Aryan et al. 2025, ApJS, 281, 20, doi:10.3847/1538-4365/adfc69.
GCN Circular 45743
F. Novotny, J. Strobl, M. Jelinek and R. Hudec (ASU CAS Ondrejov) report:
We observed the position of GRB 260924A (D'Elia et al., GCN 45713;
Evans et al., GCN 45715), detected by Swift (trigger=1513082), with the
D50 telescope of the Astronomical Institute Ondrejov, near Prague, Czech
Republic. We obtained 14x120s and 10x60s Sloan r'-band exposures between
03:15 and 03:57 UT on 2026 September 25, i.e. 26.0-26.7 h after the
trigger.
The optical afterglow (Hu et al., GCN 45717; Izzo et al., GCN 45718)
is detected in the combined image (mean epoch T0+26.4 h) at
RA, Dec = 08:55:03.11, +12:02:35.5 (J2000), consistent with the UVOT
position (Klingler et al., GCN 45735), with a magnitude of
r' = 19.12 +/- 0.08 (AB)
Photometry is calibrated in Sloan r' (AB system) against ATLAS-RefCat2
field stars, not corrected for Galactic extinction (E(B-V)=0.041 mag).
GCN Circular 45741
SVOM/GRM team: Zheng-Hang Yu, Wen-Jun Tan, Yue Wang, Shao-Lin Xiong, Shuang-Nan Zhang (IHEP)
SVOM/ECLAIRs team: Olivier Godet (IRAP)
Report on behalf of the SVOM team:
SVOM/GRM was triggered in-flight by GRB 260924A (SVOM trigger reference: sb26092401) at 2026-09-24T01:13:28.000 (T0), which is also detected by Fermi/GBM (Fermi GBM team, GCN #45712), Swift (V. D'Elia et al., GCN #45713), AstroSat CZTI (S. Salunke, GCN #45720) and Fermi/LAT (A. Holzmann Airasca et al., GCN #45721).
With the event-by-event data downloaded through the X-band ground station, the GRM light curve shows that this burst consists of two main episodes multiple pulses followed by a single pulse with a T90 of 338.0 +/-1.0 s in the 15-5000 keV band.
The SVOM/GRM light curve can be found here:
https://www.bursthub.cn/gcn/2026/9/svgrb260924A.png
In addition, the position of this burst, as determined by Swift/XRT (RA = 133.76, Dec = 12.04, Error = 2.1 arcsec, GCN #45715), is located at about 78 degrees from the SVOM optical axis, which is outside the ECLAIRs field of view. ECLAIRs detected the burst mostly through the shield above 50 keV.
With this localization, the time-averaged spectrum from T0-10 to T0+400 s is best fitted by a power law function with an exponential high-energy cutoff. The power law index is -0.90 +/-0.03 and the cutoff energy, parameterized as Epeak, is 535 +37/-33 keV. The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is (3.35 +0.06/-0.07)E-04 erg/cm^2.
The 1s peak spectrum, measured from T0+339 to T0+340 s, if fitted by a power law function with an exponential high-energy cutoff, the power law index is -0.88 +0.04/-0.05 and the cutoff energy, parameterized as Epeak, is 943 +113/-95 keV. The flux (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is (6.87 +/-0.16)E-06 erg/cm^2/s.
The localization of GRB 260924A in the 'Amati' relation diagram is shown at: https://www.bursthub.cn/gcn/2026/9/svgrb260924A_amati.png
The localization of GRB 260924A in the 'Yonetoku' relation diagram is shown at:
https://www.bursthub.cn/gcn/2026/9/svgrb260924A_yonetoku.png
The Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) is a China-France joint mission led by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA, China), National Center for Space Studies (CNES, France) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS, China), which is dedicated to observing gamma-ray bursts and other transient phenomena in the energetic universe. GRM is developed by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of CAS.
The SVOM/GRM point of contact for this burst is: Zheng-Hang Yu (IHEP) (zhyu@ihep.ac.cn)
GCN Circular 45740
A. J. Castro-Tirado, I. Perez-Garcia, A. Sota, E. Fernandez-Garcia, M.D. Caballero-Garcia, S. Guziy and M. Gritsevich (IAA-CSIC), Y.-D. Hu (GXI), A. Fernandez-Martin and S. Gongora (CAHA) on behalf of a larger collaboration, report:
Following the detection of GRB 260924A by Fermi/GBM (Fermi Team, GCN 45712, McDermott, GCN 45723), Swift/BAT (D'Elia et al., GCN 45713, Gupta et al., GCN 45733) and Swift/XRT (enhanced XRT position, Evans et al., GCN 45715), AstroSAT (Salunke et al., GCN 45720) and NuSTAR (Waratkar et al. GCN 45732), we observed the optical afterglow (Hu et al. GCN 45717, Izzo et al. GCN 45718) with the 2.2m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory (Almeria, Spain) equipped with CAFOS .
We obtained an acquisition image in the r’-band and long-slit spectroscopy with the grisms G-200 (2 x 500 s, mid-time 2026-09-25 04:16 UT, i.e. T0 + 27.0 h) and B-100 (3 x 500 s, mid-time 04:44 UT, T0 + 27.4 h), with a 2.0 arcsec slit set at the parallactic angle. The airmass decreased from 2.6 to 1.9 and the seeing was 1.1 arcsec.
In the acquisition image (30 s, 26.3 h post trigger) the afterglow is detected at r’ = 19.04 +/- 0.18 (AB, calibrated against Pan-STARRS DR1) which, compared with r' = 18.68 +/- 0.04 at 21.50 h post trigger (GROWTH-India, GCN 45728), implies a decay index alpha = 1.6 +/- 0.8.
The combined spectrum covers 3700-8800 A and shows a well-detected continuum above 5500 A. Below 5480 +/- 40 A the flux drops by a factor of about 2-3, and below ~4100 A it falls to a few per cent of the extrapolated continuum. We interpret these as the Lyman-alpha break and the Lyman limit of the same absorber, giving a redshift estimate of z = 3.51 +/- 0.10
The break is present independently in both grisms, and is also seen in the raw count ratio between the afterglow and a field star that fell on the same slit, so it does not depend on the flux calibration. No metal absorption lines are detected due to the low signal-to-noise of these data.
This redshift confirms the photometric estimate z = 3.6 +/- 0.3 that we can derive from BVRI imaging with the 1.5m telescope of the Sierra Nevada Observatory (OSN) at 3.2 h post trigger, where the afterglow had R = 15.51 +/- 0.01 (Hu et al. , GCN 45717).
At z = 3.51 this corresponds to an absolute magnitude of about -31 at a rest-frame wavelength of 1400 A and a rest-frame epoch of 0.7 h, placing GRB 260924A among the most luminous optical afterglows observed till date.
We thank the staff of the Calar Alto and Sierra Nevada observatories for their excellent support.
GCN Circular 45736
Bin Ma, Jin-Ji Li, Zhong-Nan Dong, Jia-Qi Lin, Pu Lin, Yun Shi, Hao-Nan Yang, P H Thomas Tam, Rong-Feng Shen (Sun Yat-sen University) report on behalf of the SYSU 80cm infrared telescope team:
We observed the field of GRB 260924A, detected by Fermi/GBM (Fermi GBM team, GCN 45712) and Swift/BAT (D'Elia et al., GCN 45713), using the Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) 80 cm infrared telescope. Our observations started on 2026 September 24 at 21:50 UT, 20.6 hours after the GRB trigger, and continued until 22:50 UT in the J band.
We clearly detect the source at the position of the optical counterpart (Hu et al., GCN 45717