Swift detection of a new SGR Swift J1851.2-6148 or a short GRB 210119A

ATel #14331; M. J. Moss (GWU), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (NSF), A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC), K. L. Page (U Leicester) and D. M. Palmer (LANL)
on 19 Jan 2021; 05:10 UT
Credential Certification: David M. Palmer (palmer@lanl.gov)

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Swift detection of a new SGR Swift J1851.2-6148 or a short GRB 210119A

This is a courtesy copy of GCN #29323 (the reference for citation) for the benefit of the SGR community.

The authors report on behalf of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Team:

At 02:54:09 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located a short burst which would be either an unknown Soft Gamma Repeater or GRB 210119A (trigger=1017711). The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 282.804, -61.801 which is
RA(J2000) = 18h 51m 13s
Dec(J2000) = -61d 48' 02"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a single peak structure with a duration of 0.128 sec or less. The peak count rate was ~8000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger.

Due to a Sun observing constraint, Swift cannot slew to the BAT position until 12:54 UT on 2021 January 26. There will thus be no XRT or UVOT data for this trigger before this time.

Due to the short timescale of the peak and the location of the source in the Galactic bulge (lat, lon = 333.99, -23.67) this event may be from a previously unknown Soft Gamma Repeater, which we would name SGR Swift J1851.2-6148 .

Burst Advocate for this burst is M. J. Moss (mikejmoss3 AT gmail.com). Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/ )