TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18886 SUBJECT: GRB 160117B: VLT/X-shooter spectroscopy DATE: 16/01/18 05:35:54 GMT FROM: Antonio de Ugarte Postigo at IAA-CSIC A. de Ugarte Postigo (IAA-CSIC, DARK/NBI), G. Pugliese (API/UvA), D. Xu (NAOC/CAS), D. Malesani (DARK/NBI) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the afterglow of GRB 160117B (Sonbas et al., GCN 18875; Yurkov et al., GCN 18877; Kruehler et al., GCN 18878, Malesani et al. GCN 18884, Hentunen et al. GCN 18885) with ESO's Very Large Telescope UT2 equipped with X-shooter. The spectra cover the range between 3000 and 18000 AA. Observations consisted of 4x1200s exposures, starting at 03:26 UT (13.45 hr after the GRB onset). The optical counterpart is clearly detected in our grz acquisition images. A preliminary analysis of the spectrum shows a clear continuum with absorption features due to FeII, MgII, as well as emission features of [OII], [OIII] and H-beta at a common redshift of 0.870, which we propose as redshift of the GRB. We acknowledge the excellent support provided by the Paranal staff.