CaltechAUTHORS
Published December 20, 2002 | Version Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

The Faint Optical Afterglow and Host Galaxy of GRB 020124: Implications for the Nature of Dark Gamma‐Ray Bursts

Creators

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

Abstract

We present ground-based optical observations of GRB 020124 starting 1.6 hr after the burst, as well as subsequent Very Large Array and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations. The optical afterglow of GRB 020124 is one of the faintest afterglows detected to date, and it exhibits a relatively rapid decay, F_ν ∝ t^(-1.60±0.04), followed by further steepening. In addition, a weak radio source was found coincident with the optical afterglow. The HST observations reveal that a positionally coincident host galaxy must be the faintest host to date, R ≳ 29.5 mag. The afterglow observations can be explained by several models requiring little or no extinction within the host galaxy, A_V^(host) ≈ 0-0.9 mag. These observations have significant implications for the interpretation of the so-called dark bursts (bursts for which no optical afterglow is detected), which are usually attributed to dust extinction within the host galaxy. The faintness and relatively rapid decay of the afterglow of GRB 020124, combined with the low inferred extinction, indicate that some dark bursts are intrinsically dim and not dust obscured. Thus, the diversity in the underlying properties of optical afterglows must be observationally determined before substantive inferences can be drawn from the statistics of dark bursts.

Additional Information

© 2002 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2002 July 15; accepted 2002 August 20. J. S. B. is a Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellow. F. A. H. acknowledges support from a Presidential Early Career award. S. R. K. and S. G. D. thank the NSF for support. R. S. is grateful for support from a NASA ATP grant. R. S. and T. J. G. acknowledge support from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. J. C. W. acknowledges support from NASA grant NAG 59302. K. H. is grateful for Ulysses support under JPL contract 958056 and for IPN support under NASA grants FDNAG 5-11451 and NAG 5-17100. Support for Proposal HST-GO-09180.01-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 NAS5-26555. We thank the anonymous referee for helpful comments.

Attached Files

Published - Berger_2002_ApJ_581_981.pdf

Submitted - 0207320.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
98795
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190923-103407493

Related works

Describes
https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0207320 (URL)

Funding

Fannie and John Hertz Foundation
Caltech President's Fund
NSF
NASA
NAG 59302
Sherman Fairchild Foundation
JPL
958056
NASA
FDNAG 5-11451
NASA
NAG 5-17100
NASA
HST-GO-09180.01-A
NASA
NAS5-26555

Dates

Created
2019-09-23
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

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