[vsnet-grb-info 2892] GRB060210: Gemini absorption spectroscopy

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  4729
SUBJECT: GRB060210: Gemini absorption spectroscopy
DATE:    06/02/10 09:12:53 GMT
FROM:    Antonino Cucchiara at PSU  <cucchiara at astro.psu.edu>

A. Cucchiara (Penn State), D. B. Fox (Penn State), and E. Berger
(Carnegie Observatories) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:

"We have observed the optical afterglow (Fox & Cenko, GCN 4723) of GRB
060210 (Beardmore et al., GCN 4724) with the GMOS instrument on
Gemini-North.  Examination of a reduced 1500-s spectrum of the
afterglow reveals a strong continuum break at roughly 6000 Angstroms,
with only intermittent transmission blueward of this wavelength and
multiple strong absorption features to the red, including the NV
1239,1243 doublet, the CIV 1548,1550 doublet, and an array of Si
transitions, at the common redshift of z=3.91.  We propose this as the
redshift of GRB 060210."

We acknowledge the rapid response effort of Gemini personnel that
yielded these data, and in particular observer I. Song.