Astronomers have observed a visible light emitted at the same time as a gamma-ray burst for the first time on January 27, 1999. The Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) Detects Simultaneous Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Counterpart, provides detailed information pertaining to this discovery and ROTSE research in general. ROTSE's objective is to search for "astrophysical optical transients on time scales of a fraction of a second to a few hours." This project is sponsored by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of Michigan.