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Interplanetary Network Localization of GRB991208 and the Discovery of its Afterglow

K. Hurley, T. Cline, E. Mazets, R. Aptekar, S. Golenetskii, D. Frederiks, D. Frail, S. Kulkarni, J. Trombka, T. McClanahan, R. Starr, J. Goldsten

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0002116

Abstract

The extremely energetic (~10-4 erg/cm2) gamma-ray burst (GRB) of 1999 December 8 was triangulated to a ~14 sq. arcmin. error box ~1.8 d after its arrival at Earth with the 3rd interplanetary network (IPN), consisting of the Ulysses, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), and WIND spacecraft. Radio observations with the Very Large Array ~2.7 d after the burst revealed a bright fading counterpart whose position is consistent with that of an optical transient source whose redshift is z=0.707. We present the time history, peak flux, fluence, and refined 1.3 sq. arcmin. 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.

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