This was the burst's optical afterglow.
On May 10 Howard Bond of the Space Telescope Science Institute published his discovery, which was later confirmed to be the burst's optical afterglow.
More elaborate equipment could pick up the stellar explosions in distant galaxies called supernovae or the faint optical "afterglow" of gamma-ray bursts.
GRB 000131 was the first gamma-ray burst to have its optical afterglow detected by an 8-meter telescope.
The optical afterglow was detected by the Liverpool Telescope and the William Herschel Telescope.
Optical observations taken 34 hours after the burst revealed an optical afterglow.
In October 2007 Oksanen was the first to find optical afterglow of GRB 071010B which had been detected by Swift satellite only 17 minutes before.
The burst's optical afterglow was first observed from Siding Spring Observatory less than two hours after the burst had been detected.
A spectrum taken of the burst's optical afterglow on 6 April 2003 showed peaks at approximately 570 nm and 470 nm.
After Swift has slewed towards a GRB, the UVOT is used to detect an optical afterglow.