Difference: GCNCIRCULAR21548 ( vs. 1)

K.D. Alexander (Harvard), W. Fong (Northwestern), and E. Berger (Harvard) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:

We have completed a more thorough analysis of the VLA observations previously reported by Alexander et al. (LVC GCN 21529), in which we detected radio emission near the position of the candidate optical counterpart to LIGO/Virgo G298048. We now believe that the previously reported position underestimated the coordinate uncertainties created by the highly elongated beam shape (~9" by 1.5") due to the low elevation of the target. We note that the center of the observed VLA position is actually closer to the position of the candidate host galaxy, NGC 4993, than to the position of the optical transient reported by Coulter et al. (LVC GCN 21529), and may contain an unknown amount of host contribution.

At this time we cannot state with confidence whether this radio emission originates from the galaxy or the optical transient. Analysis is ongoing and further observations are planned.

-- ThomasKupfer - 18 Aug 2017