Interplanetary Network Localization of GRB 991208 and the Discovery of its Afterglow

Abstract

The extremely energetic (∼10 Ϫ4 ergs cm Ϫ2 ) gamma-ray burst (GRB) of 1999 December 8 was triangulated to an ∼14 arcmin 2 error box ∼1.8 days after its arrival at Earth with the third interplanetary network (IPN), which consists of the Ulysses, Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, and Wind spacecraft. Radio observations with the Very Large Array ∼2.7 days after the burst revealed a bright fading counterpart whose position is consistent with that of an optical transient source with a redshift of 0.707. We present the time history, peak flux, fluence, and refined 1.3 arcmin 2 error box of this event and discuss its energetics. This is the first time that a counterpart has been found for a GRB localized only by the IPN.

GROND coverage of the main peak of gamma-ray burst 130925A

“…Also, INTEGRAL SPI/ACS (Savchenko et al 2013) and MAXI/GSC (Suzuki et al 2013) triggered on this GRB and Konus-Wind detected it in waiting mode . It was also observed by Mars Odyssey and MESSENGER in the interplanetary network, and these observations strengthen the case for a common origin for all of the emission episodes (Hurley et al 2013). The overall Konus-Wind light curve of this particularly long burst, unaffected by Earth occultations, is shown in Fig.…”

Five years of SGR 1900+14 observations withBeppoSAX

“…During this period no bursts were recorded from SGR 1627−41, and its fading has been interpreted as due to the cooling of the neutron star surface after the heating occurred when the source was active in 1998. SGR 1900+14 was still moderately active during 2002 (Hurley et al 2002), but then no bursts were observed for several years. The smaller luminosity in the last BeppoSAX observation might thus correspond to the initial part of a cooling and fading phase, at least qualitatively similar to that observed in SGR 1627−41, but now interrupted by the recent (March 2006) reactivation (Palmer et al 2006;Golenetskii et al 2006).…”

“…Another bright flare, but of comparatively smaller fluence (∼9 × 10 −6 erg cm −2 ), occurred after 10 days (Lenters et al 2003). The last bursts reported from SGR 1900+14, before its recent reactivation (Palmer et al 2006;Golenetskii et al 2006) occurred in November 2002 (Hurley et al 2002).…”

Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

“…This result anticipated by about a decade the discussion on the GRB distance scale in the early and mid-1990s. A detailed discussion of this issue, in particular the extent to which this result reflected instrumental effects, was given by Hurley (1986).…”

“…To many, the impact of BeppoSAX came as a surprise; however, the direct use of the WFCs for accurate GRB locations was an integral part of the scientific goals of this instrument from the very beginning (see e.g. Hurley 1986). Rapid follow-up observations of these error boxes have unambiguously shown that γ -ray bursts originate from the high-redshift universe.…”