From Space.com:
An explosion originating near the edge of the universe has been seen by an orbiting NASA telescope. The burst of gamma rays is the farthest such event ever detected.
The blast, designated GRB 080913, arose from an exploding star 12.8 billion light-years away. It was detected by the Swift satellite and announced today.
"This is the most amazing burst Swift has seen," said the mission's lead scientist Neil Gehrels of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It's coming to us from near the edge of the visible universe."
The universe is thought to be 13.7 billion years old. Seeing something so far away is effectively like looking back in time. The burst took 12.8 billion years to reach Earth and so is a snapshot of activity from when the universe was just one-seventh its present age.
"This burst accompanies the death of a star from one of the universe's early generations," says Patricia Schady of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London, who is organizing Swift observations of the event.
Read more ....
1 comment:
its not a explosion, its a quasar. at the center is a humongous black hole
Post a Comment