Near the beginning of time, a dying star gave off a flash of light. It has finally reached the grasp of our telescopesAstronomers have detected the most distant cosmic explosion ever recorded. This record-breaking blast from the past marks the death of a star -- and the birth of a black hole -- in the early life of the known universe.
Named GRB 090423 after the date it was first noticed, this gamma ray burst occurred when the universe was only five percent of its current age -- just 630 million years after the theorized Big Bang.
The universe is estimated to be about 13.7 billion years old.
In the 18th century, many dying stars looked like giant planets when viewed through small telescopes. Thus, they were dubbed "planetary nebulas."
According to NASA, these "cosmic beauties last a relatively brief time, about a few thousand years, in the approximately 10-billion-year lifetime of a star."
"Farther than any known galaxy, quasar, or optical supernova," according to an April 29 statement by NASA, "GRB 090423 provides unique data from a relatively unexplored epoch in our universe and a distant beacon from which the intervening universe can be studied."
Far out, indeed.
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