Sloan Digital Sky Survey Multicolor Observations of GRB010222
Abstract
The discovery of an optical counterpart to GRB010222 (detected by BeppoSAX; Piro 2001) was announced 4.4 hrs after the burst by Henden (2001). The Sloan Digital Sky Survey's 0.5m photometric telescope (PT) and 2.5m survey telescope were used to observe the afterglow of GRB010222 starting 4.8 hours after the GRB. The 0.5m PT observed the afterglow in five, 300 sec g' band exposures over the course of half an hour, measuring a temporal decay rate in this short period of Fν t{-1.0 +/- 0.5}. The 2.5m camera imaged the counterpart nearly simultaneously in five filters (u' g' r' i' z'), with r' = 18.74+/-0.02 at 12:10 UT. These multicolor observations, corrected for reddening and the afterglow's temporal decay, are well fit by the power-law Fν ν {-0.90 +/- 0.03} with the exception of the u' band UV flux which is 20% below this slope. We examine possible interpretations of this spectral shape, including source extinction in a star forming region. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is a joint project of The University of Chicago, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, The Johns Hopkins University, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington. Apache Point Observatory, site of the SDSS telescopes, is operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC). Funding for the project has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the SDSS member institutions, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, Monbusho, and the Max Planck Society. The SDSS Web site is http://www.sdss.org/.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #198
- Pub Date:
- November 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AAS...198.3813L