[vsnet-grb-info 12676] GRB 121202A: Swift-XRT observations

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  14036
SUBJECT: GRB 121202A: Swift-XRT observations
DATE:    12/12/02 06:10:34 GMT
FROM:    Phil Evans at U of Leicester  <pae9 at leicester.ac.uk>

P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), D.N. Burrows
(PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), S. Campana (INAF-OAB) and G. Cusumano
(INAF-IASF PA) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

The XRT began observing the field of GRB 121202A at 05:07:09.7 UT,
2824.7 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we
find an uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 256.79704,
23.94886 which is equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = 17h 07m 11.29s
   Dec(J2000) = +23d 56' 55.9"
with an uncertainty of 3.7 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 60 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT
error circle. This position may be improved as more data are received;
the latest position is available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/sper. 

A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event
data gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (3.91 x
10^20 cm^-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of 3.9
(+2.19/-1.90) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence).