The puzzling afterglow of GRB 050721: a rebrightening seen in the optical but not in the X‐ray

We present here the analysis of the early and late multiwavelength afterglow emission, as observed by Swift a small robotic telescope, and the VLT. We compare early observations with late afterglow observations obtained with Swift and the VLT and we observe an intense rebrightening in the optical band at about one day after the burst which is not present in the X‐ray band. The lack of detection in X‐ray of such a strong rebrightening at lower energies may be described with a variable external density profile. In such a scenario, the combined X‐ray and optical observations allow us to derive that the matter density located at ∼ 1017 cm from the burst is about a factor of 10 higher than in the inner region. This is the first time in which a rebrightening has been observed in the optical afterglow of a GRB that is clearly absent in the X‐ray afterglow.