[vsnet-grb-info 28435] GRB 210702A: MeerKAT radio detection

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  30538
SUBJECT: GRB 210702A: MeerKAT radio detection
DATE:    21/07/27 22:40:49 GMT
FROM:    Tanmoy Laskar at U of Bath  <tanmoylaskar at gmail.com>

T. Laskar (University of Bath), S. Buchner (SARAO), S. Legodi (SARAO), K.
D. Alexander (Northwestern), E. Ayache (Bath), E. Berger (Harvard), S.
Bhandari (CSIRO), J. Bright (Northwestern), R. Chornock (UC Berkeley), D.
Coppejans (Northwestern), H. van Eerten (Bath), W. Fong (Northwestern), R.
Margutti (UC Berkeley), C.G. Mundell (Bath), P. Schady (Bath), and G.
Schroeder (Northwestern) report:

"We observed GRB 210702A (Lien et al. GCN 30351) with the MeerKAT radio
telescope array over two epochs beginning on 2021 July 11 12:16 UTC (8.7 d
after the burst) and 2021 July 23 18:16 UTC (21.0 d after the burst),
respectively. Preliminary analysis reveals a brightening radio counterpart
with 1.284 GHz flux density of 123 +/- 12 uJy at 21.0 d at position:

RA (J2000) = 11:14:18.76
Dec (J2000) = -36:44:49.5

with uncertainty ~ 0.4" in each coordinate, consistent with the X-ray
position (D'Elia et al., GCN 30358), optical position (Lien et al., GCN
30351; Kuin et al., GCN 30356), and mm-band position (Laskar & Perley, GCN
30423). Further observations are planned.

The MeerKAT telescope is operated by the South African Radio Astronomy
Observatory, which is a facility of the National Research Foundation, an
agency of the Department of Science and Innovation."