TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  753
SUBJECT: GRB 990705, HST/STIS observations of the host galaxy
DATE:    00/07/27 21:47:24 GMT
FROM:    Jens Hjorth at U.Copenhagen  <jens@astro.ku.dk>

Stephen Holland (University of Aarhus),
Michael Andersen (University of Oulu),
Jens Hjorth, Johan Fynbo (University of Copenhagen),
Gunnlaugur Bjornsson (University of Iceland),
Bjarne Thomsen (University of Aarhus),
Andreas Jaunsen (University of Oslo),
Priya Natarajan (University of Cambridge, & Yale), and
Nial Tanvir (University of Hertfordshire)

    We have obtained 8851 seconds of STIS images with the 50CCD (clear) 
aperture of the host galaxy of GRB 990705.  This data was taken as part of 
the Survey of the Host Galaxies of Gamma-Ray Bursts (Holland et al. GCN 698) 
approximately 387 days after the burst.  The drizzled, combined image is now 
available at "http://www.ifa.au.dk/~hst/grb_hosts/data/index.html".

    Comparison with the H-band image of Masetti et al. (A&A, 354, 473, 2000)
shows that the gamma-ray burst occurred at the position X = 1043 +- 2, 
Y = 1064 +- 2 in the drizzled STIS clear image. This is in the outskirts of 
a spiral arm, 0.9 arcsec west of the apparent nucleus of a face-on spiral 
galaxy.  The galaxy appears to be of type Sc, possibly with a weak bar.  It 
has an angular diameter of 5-6 arcsec, and contains several knots that may 
be star-forming regions.  The magnitude of the galaxy within an aperture 
radius of 2 arcsec is V = 22.8 +- 0.2 after subtraction of foreground stars. 
The large angular extent of the host galaxy suggests that it is at fairly low 
redshift and that GRB 990705 may have been the second nearest GRB (next to 
GRB 980425/SN1998bw) that has been located up to now.  An image of the host 
galaxy and the approximate location of the GRB is available at 
"http://www.ifa.au.dk/~hst/grb_hosts/data/grb990705cd.gif".