We report on the discovery of the radio , infrared and optical transient coincident with an X-ray transient proposed to be the afterglow of GRB 980703 .
At later times when the transient has faded below detection , we see an underlying galaxy with R = 22.6 ; this galaxy is the brightest host galaxy ( by nearly 2 magnitudes ) of any cosmological GRB thus far .
In keeping with an established trend , the GRB is not significantly offset from the host galaxy .
Interpreting the multi-wavelength data in the framework of the popular fireball model requires that the synchrotron cooling break was between the optical and X-ray bands on July 8.5 UT and that the intrinsic extinction of the transient is A _ { V } = 0.9 .
This is somewhat higher than the extinction for the galaxy as a whole , as estimated from spectroscopy .