The bright optical afterglow of the nearby gamma-ray burst of 29 March 2003.
Past studies of cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been hampered by their extreme distances, resulting in faint afterglows. A nearby GRB could potentially shed much light on the origin of these events, but GRBs with a redshift z <or= 0.2 have been estimated to occur only rarely, about once per decade. Here we report the discovery of the bright optical afterglow emission from the burst of 29 March 2003 (GRB030329; ref. 2). The brightness of the afterglow and the prompt report of its position resulted in extensive follow-up observations at many wavelengths, along with the measurement of the redshift, z = 0.169 (ref. 4). The gamma-ray and afterglow properties of GRB030329 are similar to those of GRBs at cosmological redshifts. Observations have already identified the progenitor as a massive star that exploded as a supernova.
Price
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RSAA, ANU, Mt Stromlo Observatory, via Cotter Rd, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia. pap@mso.anu.edu.au
Fox
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Kulkarni
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Peterson
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Schmidt
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Soderberg
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Yost
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Berger
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Djorgovski
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Frail
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Harrison
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Sari
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Blain
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Chapman
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