Optical follow-up of GRB 970508
Abstract
We report on the results of optical follow-up observations of the counterpart of GRB 970508, starting 7 hours after the event. Multi-color U, B, V, R and I band observations were obtained during the first three consecutive nights. The counterpart was monitored regularly in R until 4 months after the burst. The light curve after the maximum follows a decline that can be fitted with a power law with exponent = --1.141 0.014. Deviations from a smooth power law decay are moderate (r.m.s. = 0.15 magnitude). We find no flattening of the light curve at late times. The optical afterglow fluence is a significant fraction, 5%, of the GRB fluence. The optical energy distribution can be well represented by a power law, the slope of which changed at the time of the maximum (the spectrum became redder).
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9802160,
title = {Optical follow-up of GRB 970508},
author = {T. J. Galama and P. J. Groot and J. van Paradijs and C. Kouveliotou and R. G. Strom and R. A. M. J. Wijers and N. Tanvir and J. Bloom and M. Centurion and J. Telting and R. G. M. Rutten and P. Smith and C. Mackey and S. Smartt and C. Benn and J. Heise and J. in 't Zand},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9802160},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, 10 pages including 3 figures