Sep 13 2008
From The Space Library
NASA’s Swift satellite spotted the most distant GRB that scientists had ever seen. Swift’s Burst Alert Telescope first sighted the exploding star at 1:47 a.m. (EDT); less than 2 minutes later, Swift’s X-ray Telescope began to observe the GRB. A team of astronomers from around the globe examined light from the fading GRB in seven wavelengths, to determine its distance from Earth. The explosion’s shift toward the less energetic red end of the electromagnetic spectrum— a phenomenon known as a redshift—indicated its remoteness. Named GRB 080913, the explosion had occurred 12.8 billion light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Eridanus. Occurring when the universe was less than 825 million years old, GRB 080913 was 70 million light-years farther away from Earth than the most distant previously known GRB.
NASA, “NASA’s Swift Catches Farthest-Ever Gamma-Ray Burst,” news release 08-239, 19 September 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/sep/HQ_08239_Swift_GRB_discovery.html (26 July 2011).
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