Published February 20, 2003 | Version Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

GRB 010921: Strong Limits on an Underlying Supernova from the Hubble Space Telescope

  • 1. ROR icon Mount Stromlo Observatory
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 3. ROR icon National Radio Astronomy Observatory
  • 4. ROR icon Universities Space Research Association
  • 5. ROR icon Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg
  • 6. ROR icon Carnegie Observatories
  • 7. ROR icon New Mexico State University
  • 8. ROR icon Columbia University
  • 9. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 10. ROR icon The University of Texas at Austin
  • 11. ROR icon University of Virginia
  • 12. ROR icon University of California, Berkeley
  • 13. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 14. ROR icon National Research Council
  • 15. ROR icon University of Ferrara

Abstract

GRB 010921 was the first HETE-2 gamma-ray burst (GRB) to be localized via its afterglow emission. The low redshift of the host galaxy, z = 0.451, prompted us to undertake intensive multicolor observations with the Hubble Space Telescope with the goal of searching for an underlying supernova (SN) component. We do not detect any coincident SN to a limit 1.33 mag fainter than SN 1998bw at 99.7% confidence, making this one of the most sensitive searches for an underlying SN. Analysis of the afterglow data allows us to infer that the GRB was situated behind a net extinction (Milky Way and the host galaxy) of A_V ~ 1.8 mag in the observer frame. Thus, had it not been for such heavy extinction, our data would have allowed us to probe for an underlying SN with brightness approaching those of more typical Type Ib/c SNe.

Additional Information

© 2003 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2002 July 9; accepted 2002 October 23. We thank Pete Challis for helpful discussions about WFPC2 reduction and Megan Novicki and John Tonry for an advance copy of their N(N-1)/2 subtraction paper. S. R. K. and S. G. D. thank NSF for supporting our ground-based GRB observing program. B. P. S. and P. A. P. thank the ARC for supporting Australian GRB research. Support for proposal HST-GO-08867.01-A was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. K. H. is grateful for support under grant HST-GO-09180.07-A.

Attached Files

Published - Price_2003_ApJ_584_931.pdf

Submitted - 0207187.pdf

Files

0207187.pdf

Files (347.5 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:6b70bd57bd4450c2cc1f57f7c3b80143
172.6 kB Preview Download
md5:5a5c46ba298ac8d0ba06bb03598d1756
174.8 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Additional titles

Alternative title
GRB 010921: Strong Limits on an Underlying Supernova from HST

Identifiers

Eprint ID
98719
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190918-104431296

Related works

Funding

NSF
Australian Research Council
NASA
HST-GO-08867.01-A
NASA
NAS 5-26555
NASA
HST-GO-09180.07-A

Dates

Created
2019-09-18
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
TAPIR, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)