Furthest Gamma-Ray Burst Ever Observed

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday September 13, 2005 @04:32PM from the really-really-old-news-that-is-new-to-us dept.

jd writes "The SWIFT team have announced the furthest-ever observed super-massive gamma-ray burst (from 13 billion light years away). The burst was observed on the 6th of September and lasted for 3 minutes - long enough for a number of other telescopes to home in on the gigantic explosion. The distance is only barely within the reaches of the observable universe. The idea of the SWIFT telescope and follow-up observations is that they will discover both the cause of the bursts and the consequences to the star."

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Re:An honest question... by flyingsquid · 2005-09-13 17:53 · Score: 0, Redundant

There are many ways to estimate the age of the universe, not all of which involve calculating the expansion of the universe.
One way is to cut through it and then count the rings.