[vsnet-grb-info 11602] GRB 120229A: Swift detection of a short burst

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  12997
SUBJECT: GRB 120229A: Swift detection of a short burst
DATE:    12/02/29 14:57:25 GMT
FROM:    David Palmer at LANL  <palmer at lanl.gov>

V. Mangano (INAF-IASFPA), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC),
A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), D. N. Burrows (PSU),
S. Campana (INAF-OAB), J. R. Cummings (NASA/UMBC), V. D'Elia (ASDC),
P. A. Evans (U Leicester), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), B. Gendre (ASDC),
C. Guidorzi (U Ferrara), S. T. Holland (STScI), J. A. Kennea (PSU),
A. Y. Lien (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester),
F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), A. Maselli (INAF-IASFPA),
A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. T. O\'Brien (U Leicester),
K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
P. Romano (INAF-IASFPA), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU),
C. A. Swenson (PSU), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB) and B.-B. Zhang (PSU)
report on behalf of the Swift Team:

At 14:35:11 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 120229A (trigger=516571).  Swift could not slew to the burst
due to a sun constraint. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 20.035, -35.807 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 01h 20m 08s
   Dec(J2000) = -35d 48' 26"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a single short peak
structure with a duration of about 0.5 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~3000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. 

Due to a Sun observing constraint, Swift cannot slew to the BAT
position until 19:46 UT on 2012 April 17. There will thus be no XRT or
UVOT data for this trigger before this time. 

We note that this location is 5 arc minutes from the relatively
nearby (z=0.03) galaxy 6dFGSgJ012000.6-355307 . 

Burst Advocate for this burst is V. Mangano (vanessa AT ifc.inaf.it). 
Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information
regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after
trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see
Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.)