A gamma-ray burst detected by NASA's Swift satellite in April 2009 has been newly unveiled as a candidate for the most distant object in the universe. At an estimated distance of 13.14 billion light years, the burst lies far beyond any known quasar and could be more distant than any previously known galaxy or gamma-ray burst. Multiple lines of evidence in favor of a record-breaking distance for this burst, known as GRB 090429B for the 29 April 2009 date when it was discovered, are presented in a paper by an international team of astronomers led by former Penn State University graduate student Antonino Cucchiara, now at the University of California, Berkeley.
The gigantic burst of gamma rays erupted from an exploding star when the universe was less than 4% of its present age, just 520 million years old, and less than 10% of its present size. "The galaxy hosting the progenitor star of GRB 090429B was truly one of the first galaxies in the universe," said Derek Fox, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and a co-author of the paper. "Beyond the possible cosmic distance record, GRB 090429B illustrates how gamma-ray bursts can be used to reveal the locations of massive stars in the early universe and to track the processes of early galaxy and star formation that eventually led to the galaxy-rich cosmos we see around us today."
Less than a week after the record-setting GRB 090423 made headlines around the world, this new burst, GRB 090429B, appeared in the sky with suspiciously similar properties. As with the previous burst, GRB 090429B was a short-lived event, lasting less than 10 seconds, and automated Swift observations showed it to have a relatively faint X-ray afterglow. Cucchiara, then a graduate student at Penn State, woke up in the early morning hours to direct observations at the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, that he hoped would pin down the nature of this burst. Working with coauthors Andrew Levan of the University of Warwick, Nial Tanvir of the University of Leicester, and thesis supervisor Derek Fox of Penn State, Cucchiara found that, while the afterglow was visible in infrared observations, no optical light could be detected. This "drop out" behavior is a distinctive signature of the most-distant objects, and has been used for initial identification of all of the most-distant quasars, galaxies, and gamma-ray bursts.
Determined not to let GRB 090429B become "the burst that got away," the team spent two years carrying out a careful examination of their data to see if the burst is truly a candidate record-breaker, or might be a partially-obscured burst in a galaxy at a less dramatic distance. Importantly, this work has meant gathering new data -- deep observations with Gemini and the Hubble Space Telescope that would have revealed a galaxy at the burst position in any of the less-dramatic scenarios. This evidence, including the missing galaxy, indicates that the burst is extremely likely -- a 99.3-percent chance -- to be the most distant cosmic explosion, beyond the record set by GRB 090423. "Like the best politicians or talent-show contestants, the more we examined this burst, the better it looked," says Levan, the paper's second author.
Source: [url]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110525141536.htm[/url]
Update: Not sure why I am getting late. If you are referring to 2009 then read further.
Woah holy shit :science:
Hot damn, Who's going to beat that record now
[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;30054586]Hot damn, Who's going to beat that record now[/QUOTE]An alternate universe.
How can we even detect stuff that far away? If it can detect a gamma burst 13.4 billion lightyears away, then it must go off every time a pin drops on Earth or something.
I read about this in Phil Plait's blog, Bad Astronomy. It's pretty amazing, although I still haven't looked at the math myself.
13.4b/ly away? So that'd mean it happened relatively immediately after the formation of the universe. Mindfuck.
[QUOTE=Arachnidus;30065807]13.4b/ly away? So that'd mean it happened relatively immediately after the formation of the universe. Mindfuck.[/QUOTE]
3,500,000 years is not immediately at all.
[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;30054586]Hot damn, Who's going to beat that record now[/QUOTE]
Me
[QUOTE=Sir Colton;30066186]3,500,000 years is not immediately at all.[/QUOTE]
Relative to the age of the universe, it is.
[QUOTE=Sir Colton;30066186]3,500,000 years is not immediately at all.[/QUOTE]
Okay, I must admit, I'm a little confused by the detection methods they used. Any light-reliant methods would mean that there'd be the 13.4b/ly lag.
[editline]26th May 2011[/editline]
Unless I misinterpreted that, in which case, yes, it is. 3 million years on an interstellar or even intergalactic scale is one thing. Universally, it's essentially about an hour.
I suck at math, but those numbers sounded fancy. Science rocks
Sweet smokin' Jesus titty cinnamon.
:pwn:
13.4 billion year old explosion :psyduck:
-snip, it was very late-
[QUOTE=MutantBadger;30068423]That's about 8.83 billion years ago and 4.87 billion years after the big bang according to some random data I salvaged on the internet.[/QUOTE]
Pretty sure it's 13.14 billion years ago.
I fucking love shit like this.
Edit: I seem to be getting agree ratings from animals.
[QUOTE=I Broke The Sun!;30066300]Relative to the age of the universe, it is.[/QUOTE]
Agreed. I can't recall where I learned this from, but time relative to today moved extremely faster after the formation of the universe. 3.5 million years is relative to todays time, but back then, it was extremely short, like seconds after.
So that happened a looong time ago, at that part of universe time passed normally but earth only now see the start of that?
[QUOTE=Jamsponge;30057213]How can we even detect stuff that far away? If it can detect a gamma burst 13.4 billion lightyears away, then it must go off every time a pin drops on Earth or something.[/QUOTE]
That is so retarded. All it does is pick up the Gamma Photons and work out the phase difference/energy loss.
Makes you wonder what's going on out there 13.4 billion light years away right now...guess we'll have to wait 13.4 billion years to find out. :saddowns:
This happened 13.14 billion years ago OP, talk about late
I really hope I get into a good college and can major in astronomy. Please. :ohdear:
[QUOTE=Sir Colton;30066186]3,500,000 years is not immediately at all.[/QUOTE]
It took that long for those light photons to reach our telescopes, therefore it happened over 13.4B years ago. Nice fail at being a smart ass.
[QUOTE=Sir Colton;30066186]3,500,000 years is not immediately at all.[/QUOTE]
3.5 million years in comparison to how old the universe is and the average life span of stars, yea that's pretty immediate.
-snip- bad reading
[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;30054586]Hot damn, Who's going to beat that record now[/QUOTE]
my penis :smug:
anyways i thought the most distant thing was a "wall" of radiation, at least that's what i heard on a space documentary some time ago.
[QUOTE=KlaseR;30083893][b]my penis[/b] :smug:
anyways i thought the most distant thing was a "wall" of radiation, at least that's what i heard on a space documentary some time ago.[/QUOTE]It's so far away it's almost nonexista-- OH WAIT.
Seriously, though. :frog:
Holy shit, that explosion happened 13.14 billion years ago :psyduck: God knows what the heck is out there now.
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