Price, PaulFox, Derek BKulkarni, Shrinivas RPeterson, BruceSchmidt, BrianSoderberg, A MYost, S ABerger, EdoDjorgovski, S GFrail, Dale AHarrison, F ASari, RBlain, A WChapman, Simon2015-12-132015-12-130028-0836http://hdl.handle.net/1885/87960Past studies of cosmological γ-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 ≤ 0.2 have been estiP.A.P. and B.P.S. thank the ARC for supporting Australian GRB research. GRB research at Caltech is supported in part by funds from NSF and NASA. We are indebted to S. Barthelmy and the GCN, as well as the HETE-II team for prompt alerts of GRB localizations.13 pages© 2003 Nature Publishing Group.Keywords: Astrophysics; Cosmic rays; Explosions; Light emission; Cosmology; Gamma ray bursts (GRB); Gamma rays; astronomy; gamma ray radiation; article; astronomy; cosmos; gamma radiation; imaging; luminance; optics; priority journal; X rayThe Bright Optical Afterglow of the Nearby Gamma-ray Burst of 29 March 2003200310.1038/nature017342015-12-12