X-Ray and Optical Observations of the November 19, 1978 Gamma-Ray Burst Source Region

Abstract

The November 19, 1978 Gamma-Ray Burst has a very well determined error box, 10 square arcmin (Cline et al., 1981). An 8000 second IPC exposure with the Einstein Observatory detected, at a 3.40 level, one low intensity (≤ 3 10−13 erg/cm2 sec) X-ray source inside the error box. The probabiliy of a “Serendipitous” detection was 0.01. Inside the X-ray source error box there are two weak radio sources, one of them highly polarized (Hjellming and Ewald, 1981) and two mv~ 20 magnitude objects, not coincident with the radio sources, visible in the ESO/SRC J and R plates. With the exception of N49, this is the first possible detection of X-ray emission inside a GRB error box. Its low intensity justifies, in fact, the lack of detection for other events.