- BeppoSAX mail n. 02/03
BeppoSAX mail n. 02/03: ALERT: GRB020322 The second springtime BSAX GRB
(GRB's blossoming season?)
On Mar. 22, 03:51:30 UT a faint GRB (GRB020322) has been
detected in BeppoSAX WFC1
Preliminary coordinates are:
R.A.(2000)= 269.938
DEC.(2000)= +81.084
The error radius is 5'.
Luigi Piro,
BeppoSAX Mission Scientist
- GCN notice #1290 = BeppoSAX Mail n.02/04
BEPPOSAX ALERT: GRB020322 The second springtime BSAX GRB
(GRB's blossoming season?)
On Mar. 22, 03:51:30 UT a faint GRB (GRB020322) has been
detected in BeppoSAX WFC2
Refined coordinates are:
R.A.(2000)= 18h 00m 54.1s
DEC.(2000)= +81 04 53"
The error radius is 3'.
A Follow-up with the BeppoSAX NFI is being planned
Luigi Piro
BeppoSAX MIssion Scientist
- GCN notice #1291 = BeppoSAX Mail n.02/05
GRB020322: BeppoSAX/NFI Observations
A BeppoSAX TOO observation of GB020322 has started about 7.5
hours after the GRB.
A preliminary analysis of Quick Look data of MECS(1.6-10 keV) image in the
first orbit shows a relatively bright unknown source well inside the WFC
error circle.
The position is:
RA = 270.206
Dec = 81.103
The error radius is 1.5 arcminutes.
G. Gandolfi
on behalf of BeppoSAX Mission Scientist
- red DSS finding chart with the 1.5 arcmin error box:
ps-file
- GCN notice #1292
D.W. Fox, J.S. Bloom, and P.A.A. Lopes (Caltech) report on behalf of a
larger collaboration:
"We have observed the full error circle of GRB020322 (GCN #1290, GCN
#1291) with the Palomar 60-inch telescope, beginning at 10:39 UT, 7.7
hours after the burst. Our R-band and I-band images show no new
objects by comparison with DPOSS images of the region (limiting
magnitudes R~20.8, I~19.5). Comparison with images taken roughly 2
hours after our first images also fails to reveal any significantly
fading (delta-R > 0.3 mag) R-band sources, to limits slightly deeper
than the DPOSS limit, R~22.
Further analyses of these data are ongoing."
- GCN notice #1293
M. Ehle, P. Rodriguez-Pascual, N. Loiseau, M. Santos-Lleo,
R. Gonzalez-Riestra, E. Verdugo, L. Tomas and N. Schartel
report:
A XMM-Newton TOO observation of GRB020322 (L. Piro: GCN 1290)
started at 18:18 UT with RGS, 18:46 UT with EPIC/MOS and
19:17 UT with EPIC/pn.
A preliminary analysis of Quick Look data of the EPIC images
confirms a relatively bright source inside the BeppoSAX MECS
error circle as reported by G. Gandolfi (GCN 1291). The
coordinates are:
R.A.(J2000) = 18h 01m 03.4s
Decl.(J2000) = 81d 06m 30.7s
The count rates of the source are estimated to be 0.1 [counts/sec]
in EPIC/pn and 0.05 in EPIC/MOS, respectively.
At this stage the position error is expected to be less than 6".
- GCN notice #1294
GRB 020322: Optical candidate
J. S. Bloom (Caltech), N. Mirabal & J. P. Halpern (Columbia), D. W. Fox,
and P. A. A. Lopes (Caltech), report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
"Palomar R-band images referred to in GCN #1292 show a faint object
consistent with the X-ray afterglow position and uncertainty reported
from XMM (Ehle et al., GCN #1293). At 10:39 UT, 7.9 hours after the
burst, an object is present at
(J2000) 18:01:02.9, +81:06:28.1
Compared to a USNO star at 18:00:58.03, +81:06:08.3 listed as having
R=17.5 mag, the candidate optical transient has R = 23.26 +/- 0.32 mag."
This message may be cited.
- GCN notice #1295
A. Szentgyorgyi, K. Z. Stanek, S. Jha (CfA) and P. Garnavich (Notre Dame)
We imaged the BeppoSax position of GRB 020322 (GCN 1290) using
the FLWO 1.2m + 4shooter camera beginning Mar. 22.44 (UT).
Condidtions were not ideal, but no new sources were detected in
the R-band to the limit of the red digitized Palomar Sky Survey.
At the position of the XMM-Newton X-ray afterglow (GCN 1293)
we find no optical source within the 6" radius error circle
to a limit of R=22.5 mag. (based on USNO A2.0 R-band magnitudes).
However, there is a faint source just north of the the XMM error circle
at RA=18:01:04.03 Dec=81:06:41.87 J2000 with R=21.9. This
is close to the DSS limit and it is too faint to determine variability,
so we can not confirm that it is related to the X-ray afterglow. An image
is available at:
http://www.nd.edu/~pgarnavi/grb020322/newton_candidate.jpg
The source noted by Bloom et al. (GCN 1294), is below our detection
limit.
This message may be cited.
- GCN notice #1296
GRB 020322: Optical Sources and Improved Astrometry
J. S. Bloom (Caltech), N. Mirabal & J. P. Halpern (Columbia), D. W. Fox,
and P. A. A. Lopes (Caltech), report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
"A stacked Gunn r-band image from the Palomar 60-inch (9x10 min; see
GCN #1294) reveals another faint source in the southeast portion of
the XMM error circle.
ID x y J2000
a 1129.286 1408.630 RA = 18:01:04.20, Dec = +81:06:41.27
b 1135.912 1373.888 RA = 18:01:02.98, Dec = +81:06:28.17
c 1126.379 1367.044 RA = 18:01:04.51, Dec = +81:06:25.49
Source "a" (outside the error circle) is that discussed in
Szentgyorgyi et al. (GCN #1295), source "b" (inside the error circle)
is from Bloom et al. (GCN #1294), and source "c" (inside the error
circle) is the faint source mentioned here. The ICRS positions are
found by comparison with the USNO A2.0 and are uncertain by about 300
mas, 350 mas in the RA and DEC, respectively. The x, y coordinates are
in pixels of the stacked image. This .fits image, with a WCS written
in the header, may be obtained at:
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~jsb/GRB/sum-r1.fits.gz
An image of the field showing source a,b, and c may be found at
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~jsb/GRB/grb020322-palr.gif
This message may be cited.
- GCN notice #1298
J. Greiner (MPE Garching, AIP Potsdam),
U. Thiele (MPIA Heidelberg, Calar Alto),
S. Klose (Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg),
A.J. Castro-Tirado (LAEFF-INTA, Madrid, and IAA-CSIC, Granada) report:
We have imaged the location of GRB 020322 with the 3.5 m telescope
at Calar Alto (Spain) for three times 10 min. between 22 Mar 2002 23:46 UT
to 23 Mar 2002 00:09 UT at a seeing of 1.4 arcsec. Based on the same USNO
star at 18:00:58.03, +81:06:08.3 listed as having R=17.5 mag we measure
the following magnitudes for the three sources a, b, c (Bloom et al.; GCN 1296)
inside the XMM error circle (Ehle et al.; GCN 1293):
Calar Alto earlier measurement
---------------------------------------------------------------------
a 22.07 +- 0.06 mag 21.9 mag (Szentgyorgyi et al; GCN 1295)
b 23.80 +- 0.30 mag 23.26 +- 0.32 mag (Bloom et al.; GCN 1294)
c 24.50 +- 0.60 mag
While object c is at our detection threshold, object b has clearly faded,
as also a visual comparison with the FITS image of Bloom et al. (GCN 1296)
shows (though the errors formally allow for constancy of source b).
We therefore suggest that source b is the optical counterpart of GRB 020322.
- GCN notice #1299
R. J. McMillan, D. Q. Lamb, and D. G. York, Report:
We have obtained one 10-minute exposure in r' and three 10-minute
exposures in i' of the Beppo-SAX NFI error-box (Gandolfi, GCN 1291) for
GRB020322 (Piro, GCN 1290) using SPIcam on the ARC 3.5-meter telescope at
APO beginning at UTC 9:44 on 2002 March 23. We estimate the magnitude of
object b (Bloom et al., GCN 1296) in our images to be r*=24.5+/-0.7 and
i*=24.0+/-0.7. We find that object b is now as faint as or fainter than
object c (Bloom et al., GCN 1296, Greiner et al., GCN 1298) in both r* and
i*. We therefore confirm that the object has faded (Greiner et al., GCN
1298) and is likely to be the optical afterglow of GRB020322.
This message is citable.
- GCN notice #1300
J. Hjorth, on behalf of Javier Gorosabel (who is in transit) and the
Danish/Spanish GRB collaboration, reports observations of the likely
optical afterglow of GRB 020322 obtained with the NOT on Mar 23 2002 UT.
A smoothed R-band image (6 x 900 sec) is posted at
http://www.dsri.dk/~jgu/grb020322/322.R.smooth.gif
By comparison with the image posted by Bloom et al. (GCN #1296)
it is evident that the likely optical afterglow (object b,
cf. GCN ##1294,1296,1298,1299) had faded to below R ~ 24 at
the time of observations.
- GCN notice #1301
A. Henden (USRA/USNO) reports on behalf of the USNO GRB team:
We have acquired BVRcIc all-sky photometry for
an 11x11 arcmin field that is approximately centered on
the position of the candiate optical transient reported
by Bloom et al. (GCN 1296) with the USNOFS 1.0-m telescope
on one marginally photometric night. Stars brighter than
V=13.5 are saturated and should be used with care.
We have placed the photometric data on our anonymous ftp site:
ftp://ftp.nofs.navy.mil/pub/outgoing/aah/grb/grb020322.dat.
The conditions were basically clear, but with weather maps
indicating passing clouds over the northern horizon in the direction
of the GRB field. There is a slight possibility that the
photometry has larger than the expected 0.02mag external
error, but all tests (such as color consistency) seem reasonable.
The astrometry in this file is based on linear plate solutions
with respect to USNO-A2.0. The internal errors are less than 100mas.
In particular, the USNO-A2.0 star at 18:00:58.03, +81:06:08.3
that was used to calibrate their field can be found in the .dat file
with the following magnitudes:
B = 19.42 V = 18.12 R = 17.30 I = 16.59
with estimated photometric errors of about 2 percent, including
the known zeropoint errors quoted above.
Further calibration of this field will be performed when
weather conditions improve and moonlight decreases.
- GCN notice #1307
G. G. Williams (Steward Observatory), H. S. Park (LLNL), and
D. H. Hartmann (Clemson University)
We have obtained 10 x 600s R-Band images of the position of the candidate
afterglow of GRB 020322 (GCN 1291, 1293, 1294) using the Steward
Observatory 90-inch Bok telescope. The data were obtained between 23 Mar
2002 09:15 UT and 23 Mar 2002 10:55 UT or 29.4 - 31.0 hours after the
burst. Our preliminary analysis reveals that the afterglow candidate
suggested by Bloom et al. (GCN 1294) has faded below the detection limit
of our stacked image. Using a magnitude of R = 22.0 for star "a" (GCN
1295, 1298), we find a 3-sigma upper limit of:
R > 24.5 +/- 0.3
A smoothed image of the field can be obtained at:
http://compton.as.arizona.edu/data/GRB020322/grb020322both2.gif
This message may be cited.
- GCN notice #1309
F. Mannucci (IRA/CNR, Firenze), N. Masetti (IASF/CNR, Bologna),
E. Pian (INAF, Astr. Obs. Trieste), P. Ranfagni (INAF, Astr. Obs. Arcetri),
S. Covino (INAF, Astr. Obs. Brera), G.L. Israel (INAF, Astr. Obs. Rome),
on behalf of a larger collaboration, report:
We imaged the field of GRB020322 (Piro, GCN #1290) with TIRGO equipped
with the near-IR camera ARNICA and the J and Kc filters on
2002 Mar 24.14 - 24.18 UT and on 2002 Mar 25.10 - 25.18 UT.
The total exposure times were: 78 min in J and 26 min in Kc on the
first epoch; 80 min in J and 66 min in Kc on the second.
The PSF FWHM was about 3.0 arcsec on both nights.
The images in both bands were calibrated by using an average zero point.
No source is significantly detected either at the position of the optical
afterglow of this GRB (source `b' of Bloom et al., GCN #1296) or within
the XMM-Newton error box (Ehle et al., GCN #1293) down to 3-sigma limiting
magnitudes of J = 19.9 and Kc = 18.1 on the first epoch and of J = 19.9
and Kc = 18.7 on the second.
However, a ~1-sigma excess is seen at the position of the source `b'
in the Kc-band image acquired on the first epoch.
A close-up of the four summed images on the XMM-Newton error box can be
found at
http://tonno.tesre.bo.cnr.it/~masetti/grb020322.html
This message may be cited.
- GCN notice #1310
G. B. Taylor (NRAO), and E. J. Berger (Caltech) report on
behalf of the Caltech-NRAO-CARA collaboration:
"We have imaged the entire 1.5 arcmin WFC error circle of GRB 020322
(GCN 1290, 1291) with the VLA at 8.46 GHz on UT 2002 Mar. 22.71,
Mar. 23.70, and Mar. 26.94. We detect no new sources stronger than
125 microJy (5 sigma) on Mar. 22.71 (13.2 hours after the burst) and
no source stronger than 60 microJy (5 sigma) in the combined
observations. At the location of the likely optical afterglow (object
b in GCN 1294, 1296, 1298, 1299, 1300), the observed flux density is
less than 36 microJy/beam (3 sigma) in the combined observations."
This message may be cited.
- GCN notice #1313
L.A. Antonelli, INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Rome;
L. Piro, G. Gandolfi, M. Feroci, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e
Fisica Cosmica (IASF), CNR, Rome; G. Gennaro, C. Aureli, BeppoSAX
Science Operation Center, Telespazio, Rome; M. Capalbi, ASI Science
Data Center, Rome; J. Heise, J. in't Zand , Space Research Organization
Netherlands, Utrecht and, F. Frontera, C. Guidorzi, E. Montanari, Dip.
di Fisica Universita' di Ferrara, Ferrara, report:
"The WFC error box (GCN #1290) of GRB 020322 was observed twice with
the Narrow Field Instruments (NFI) on board BeppoSAX. First
observation started on Mar 22.42866 UT (about 6.5 hours after the
burst trigger) and lasted 18600 sec elapsed time. Second observation
started on Mar 23.27757 UT and lasted 23000 sec elapsed time. A
preliminary analysis of both observations reveals a previously unknown
X-ray source, 1SAX J180059+8106.7, at the position RA = 18h 00m 59.1s,
Decl.= +81d 06' 44" (Equinox 2000, error radius of 50"). Source
position is located within the WFC error circle (Gandolfi GCN #1290)
and is consistent with the preliminary NFI analysis reported by
Gandolfi (GCN #1291) and with the XMM position (Ehle et al., GCN
#1293). The source is well detected in both BeppoSAX observations and
in the second observation its flux is faded of about a factor of 3.
We conclude that 1SAX J180059+8106.7 is the X-ray afterglow of
GRB 020322."
This message may be cited.
- GCN notice #1536
I. Burud, A. Fruchter, J. Rhoads, and A. Levan (STScI) report for the
larger GOSH (GRB Optical Studies with HST) collaboration:
We observed the field of GRB 020322 with STIS in open (50CCD) mode on
UT 2002 April 8 and on June 5. The position of the
transient with respect to the STIS image was determined by performing
relative astrometry using the optical image of the transient from
Bloom et al. (GCN 1296). The accuracy of the position translated
to the HST image is estimated to be 0.08 arcsec.
We see no evident OT, but at the position of the transient there is
an extended 27th magnitude galaxy which is likely to be the host.
The sum of the two epochs of observations is displayed at
http://www.stsci.edu/~fruchter/GRB/020322
When subtracting the images from the two epochs no residual signal is
detected above 3 sigma near the position of the OT, giving a limiting
magnitude of 30.1 mags for any transient.
Based on the ground-based observations from Bloom et al. (GCN 1294),
Greiner et al. (GCN 1298), Hjorth et al. (GCN 1300) and Williams et
al. (GCN 1307) and the non-detection of the OT in the HST/STIS image
we conclude that the late time R-band decay of the OT must be steeper
than 2.0. A plot of all the data points can be found on the aforementioned
web page.
We thank J. Bloom and the Caltech GRB group for making their ground-based
data rapidly public (GCN1296).
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