A Search for the Host Galaxy of GRB 970508

Details A Search for the Host Galaxy of GRB 970508 A Search for the Host Galaxy of GRB 970508

Dec 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997hst..prop.7966f&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #7966

Physics

Hst Proposal Id #7966

Scientific paper

We propose to reobserve the gamma-ray burster GRB970508 using the STIS CCD. Although this object was observed one month after burst by HST {Pian et al. 1998}, neither the HST observations nor subsequent ground-based observations have shown direct evidence for a host galaxy. However, unusually strong Mg I absorption and O[II] emission found in Keck spectra {Metzger et al. 1997a, b} suggest that we are not observing a random line of sight through an intervening galaxy's halo, but rather that the GRB itself is found in a relatively dense, largely neutral, interstellar medium. At the time of re-observation, the optical transient {OT} associated with GRB970508 should be more than three magnitudes fainter than during the previous HST visit, allowing a far deeper search for the host galaxy. HST observations of the first optically identified GRB, GRB970228, show that the GRB lies in a host galaxy, and Keck observations of GRB971214 suggest the same may be true for that object. If we detect a galaxy at the position of GRB970508, then it will appear likely that all three optically identified BeppoSAX bursts lie in host galaxies - a result that would require either that the sources of GRBs always lie in hosts, or that the afterglows of GRBs can only be observed when the bursts occur in a dense medium. In addition, if GRBs are always found in hosts, their position inside those hosts could provide important clues to the nature of the burst source.

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