[vsnet-grb-info 14137] GRB 131103A: VLT/X-shooter redshift

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  15451
SUBJECT: GRB 131103A: VLT/X-shooter redshift
DATE:    13/11/05 10:08:47 GMT
FROM:    Dong Xu at DARK/NBI  <dong.dark at gmail.com>

D. Xu, D. Malesani (DARK/NBI), S. Schulze (PUC, MCSS), A. de Ugarte
Postigo (IAA-CSIC, DARK/NBI), P. Jakobsson, Z. Cano(U Iceland), N. R.
Tanvir (U. Leicester), J. P. U. Fynbo, D. Watson (DARK/NBI), P.
Goldoni (APC, CEA/Irfu), S. Vergani (CNRS/GEPI), R. Wijers (U
Amsterdam) report on behalf of the X-shooter GRB collaboration:

We have obtained further observations of the afterglow of GRB 131103A
(Cummings et al., GCN Circ. 15440; Cano et al., GCN 15445) using the
ESO VLT equipped with the X-shooter spectrograph, covering the
wavelength range 3000-20000 AA.

The spectrum was secured on Nov. 5.2 with a total exposure time of
4x600 s. We detect a rich emission line spectrum from the underlying
host galaxy at a common redshift z = 0.599. We also detect strong
absorption lines from FeII and
MgII at the same redshift in the blue part of the spectrum implying
that there is significant afterglow light superimposed on the host
light.

We acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff at Paranal,
in particular Dimitri Gadotti, Roger Wesson, and Claudia Reyes.