title: The bright optical afterglow of the nearby gamma-ray burst of 29 March 2003.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: RSAA, ANU, Mt Stromlo Observatory, via Cotter Rd, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia. pap@mso.anu.edu.au
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Kulkarni
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Soderberg
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Yost
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Djorgovski
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Frail
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sari
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Blain
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chapman