We report on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of the late-time afterglow and host galaxy of GRB 021004 (z = 2.33). Although this gamma-rayburst (GRB) is one of the best observed so far in terms of sampling in the time domain, multi-wavelength coverage and polarimetric observations, there is large disagreement between different measurements and interpretations of this burst in the literature. We have observed the field of GRB 021004 with the HST at multiple epochs from 3 days until almost 10 months after the burst. With STI S prism and G430L spectroscopy we cover the spectral region from about 2000 Angstrom to 5700 Angstrom corresponding to 600 1700 Angstrom in the rest frame. From the limit on the flux recovery bluewards of the Lyman-limit we constrain the H I column density to be above 1 x 1018 cm-2 (5 sigma). Based on ACS and N ICMOS imaging we find that the afterglow evolved a chromatically within the errors (any variation must be less then 5 percent) during the period of HST observations. The color changes observed by other authors during the first four days must be related to a 'noisy' phenomenon superimposed on an afterglow component with a constant spectral shape. This also means that the cooling break has remained on the blue side of the optical part of the spectrum for at least two weeks after the explosion. The optical to X-ray slope OX is consistent with being the same at 1.4 and 52.4 days after the burst. This indicates that the cooling frequency is constant and hence, according to fireball models, that the circumburst medium has a constant density profile. The late-time slope of the light curve (alpha 2, F nu proportional to t-alpha2) is in the range 2 = 1.8-1.9, although inconsi stent with a single power-law. This could be due to a late-time flattening caused by the transition to non-relativistic expansion or due to excess emission (a 'bump' in the light curve) about 7 days afterburst. The host galaxy is like most previously studied GRB hosts a (very) blue starburst galaxy with no evidence for dust and with strong Ly emission. The star-formation rate of the host is about 10 M solar mass yr-1 based on both the stre ngth of the UV continuum and on the Ly alpha luminosity. The spectral energy distribution of the host implies an age in the range 30-100 Myr for the dominant stellar population.

We present the discovery and monitoring of the optical transient (OT) associated with GRB 020410. The fading OT was found by Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations taken 28 and 65 days after burst at a position consistent with the X-ray afterglow. Subsequent re-examination of early ground based observations revealed that a faint OT was present 6 hours after burst, confirming the source association with GRB 020410. A deep non-detection after one week requires that the OT re-brightened between day 7 and day 28, and further late timeHST data taken approximately 100 days after burst imply that it is very red (F_nu proportional to nu-2.7). We compare both the flux and color of the excess with supernova models and show that the data are best explained by the presence of a Type I b/c supernova at a redshift z approx. equal 0.5, which occurred roughly coincident with the day of GRB.

When massive stars exhaust their fuel they collapse and often produce the extraordinarily bright explosions known as core-collapse supernovae. On occasion, this stellar collapse also powers an even more brilliant relativistic explosion known as a long-duration gamma-ray burst. One would then expect that long gamma-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae should be found in similar galactic environments. Here we show that this expectation is wrong. We find that the long gamma-ray bursts are far more concentrated on the very brightest regions of their host galaxies than are the core-collapse supernovae. Furthermore, the host galaxies of the long gamma-ray bursts are significantly fainter and more irregular than the hosts of the core-collapse supernovae. Together these results suggest that long-duration gamma-ray bursts are associated with the most massive stars and may be restricted to galaxies of limited chemical evolution. Our results directly imply that long gamma-ray bursts are relatively rare in galaxies such as our own MilkyWay.