Gamma-ray Burst 161123A

(All information courtesy of the instrument teams.)

Previous IAU Circulars

• none

• GCN/BACODINE POSITION NOTICE
  

  TITLE:           GCN/MAXI NOTICE
  NOTICE_DATE:     Wed 23 Nov 16 03:48:00 UT
  NOTICE_TYPE:     MAXI Unknown Source Position
  EVENT_ID_NUM:    715147607
  EVENT_RA:         32.21d {+02h 08m 51s} (J2000),
                    32.39d {+02h 09m 33s} (current),
                    31.69d {+02h 06m 47s} (1950) 
  EVENT_DEC:       -39.65d {-39d 39' 03"} (J2000),
                   -39.57d {-39d 34' 16"} (current), 
                   -39.89d {-39d 53' 13"} (1950) 
  EVENT_ERROR:     1.0 [deg radius, stat+sys, 90% containment] 
  EVENT_FLUX:      149.0 +- 0.0 [mCrab] 
  EVENT_DATE:      17715 TJD;   328 DOY;   16/11/23
  EVENT_TIME:      11158.00 SOD {03:05:58.00} UT
  EVENT_TSCALE:    1s
  EVENT_EBAND:     Low, 2-4 keV  
  SUN_POSTN:       239.16d {+15h 56m 38s}  -20.42d {-20d 24' 54"}
  SUN_DIST:        115.01 [deg]  
  MOON_POSTN:      173.09d {+11h 32m 21s}   +4.17d {+04d 10' 07"}
  MOON_DIST:       129.88 [deg]
  MOON_ILLUM:      32 [%]
  GAL_COORDS:      255.78,-69.63 [deg] galactic lon,lat of the burst (or transient)
  ECL_COORDS:       10.67,-48.48 [deg] ecliptic lon,lat of the burst (or transient)
  COMMENTS:        MAXI Unknown Source Position. GRB or unknown X-ray Transient.
  

• GCN Circular #20203
  C. Hanyu (Miyazaki U.), S. Nakahira (JAXA), H. Negoro (Nihon U.), S. Ueno, H. Tomida, M. Ishikawa, Y. Sugawara (JAXA), Y. E. Nakagawa (JAMSTEC), T. Mihara, M. Sugizaki, M. Serino, W. Iwakiri, M. Shidatsu, J. Sugimoto, T. Takagi, M. Matsuoka (RIKEN), N. Kawai, N.Isobe, S.Sugita, T. Yoshii, Y. Tachibana, Y. Ono, T. Fujiwara, S. Harita, Y. Muraki (Tokyo Tech), A. Yoshida, T. Sakamoto, Y. Kawakubo, Y. Kitaoka (AGU), H. Tsunemi, R. Shomura (Osaka U.), M. Nakajima, K. Tanaka, T. Masumitsu, T. Kawase (Nihon U.), Y. Ueda, T. Kawamuro, T. Hori, A. Tanimoto, S. Oda (Kyoto U.), Y. Tsuboi, Y. Nakamura, R. Sasaki (Chuo U.), M. Yamauchi, K. Furuya (Miyazaki U.), K. Yamaoka (Nagoya U.) report on behalf of the MAXI team:
  The MAXI/GSC nova alert system triggered a bright uncatalogued X-ray transient +source at 03:05:58 UT on 2016 November 23. The X-ray flux averaged over the scan was 149 +- 26 mCrab(4.0-10.0keV, 1 sigma +error). Without assumptions on the source constancy,we obtain a rectangular error box for the transient source with the following corners:

  (R.A., Dec) = (32.229, -40.884) deg = (02 08 54, -40 53 02) (J2000)
  (R.A., Dec) = (31.566, -40.860) deg = (02 06 15, -40 51 36) (J2000)
  (R.A., Dec) = (32.268, -38.340) deg = (02 09 04, -38 20 24) (J2000)
  (R.A., Dec) = (32.905, -38.394) deg = (02 11 37, -38 23 39) (J2000)
  

  There was no significant excess flux in the previous transit at UT 01:33 and in the next transit at 04:38 UT with an upper limit of 20 mCrab for each.
• GCN Circular #20204
  P. A. Evans (U. Leicester) reports on behalf of the Swift team:
  Swift has initiated a series of observations, tiled on the sky, of the MAXI GRB 161123A. Automated analysis of the XRT data will be presented online at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/TILED_GRB00061
  Any uncatalogued X-ray sources detected in this analysis will be reported on this website and via GCN COUNTERPART notices. The probability of finding serendipitous sources, unrelated to the MAXI event is high: 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 #20206
  A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), L.M. McCauley (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester), S.L. Gibson (U. Leicester), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB) and P.A. Evans (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:
  Swift-XRT has performed follow-up observations of the MAXI-detected burst GRB 161123A (Hanyu et al. GCN Circ. 20203) in a series of observations tiled on the sky. The total exposure time is 2.6 ks, distributed over 7 tiles; the maximum exposure at a single sky location was 825 s. The data were collected between T0+21.8 ks and T0+28.0 ks, and are entirely in Photon Counting (PC) mode.
  No X-ray sources have been detected. The 3-sigma upper limit in the field (not including the regions where the tiles overlap) ranges from ~0.02 to ~0.05 ct s^-1, corresponding to a 0.3-10 keV observed flux of 8.2e-13 to 1.9e-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (assuming a typical GRB spectrum).
  The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis of the tiled XRT observations, including a position-specific upper limit calculator, are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/TILED_GRB00061.
  This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.