GRB 010921: Discovery of the First High Energy Transient Explorer Afterglow

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Published 2002 May 9 © 2002. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
, , Citation P. A. Price et al 2002 ApJ 571 L121 DOI 10.1086/341332

1538-4357/571/2/L121

Abstract

We report the discovery of the optical and radio afterglow of GRB 010921, the first gamma-ray burst afterglow to be found from a localization by the High Energy Transient Explorer satellite. We present optical spectroscopy of the host galaxy, which we find to be a dusty and apparently normal star-forming galaxy at z = 0.451. The unusually steep optical spectral slope of the afterglow can be explained by heavy extinction, AV > 0.5 mag, along the line of sight to the GRB. Dust with similar AV for the host galaxy as a whole appears to be required by the measurement of a Balmer decrement in the spectrum of the host galaxy.

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10.1086/341332