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Most Distant Object Yet Detected, Bagged By Galileo Scope

Posted by Soulskill on from the long-time-ago-in-a-galaxy-far,-far-away dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It's fitting, in this 400th anniversary of the astronomical telescope, that the Telescopio Nationale Galileo (TNG) in the Canary Islands would be used to uncover the most distant object ever seen by mankind. The gamma-ray burst from April 23, a powerful explosion from a dying star, was detected by the Swift satellite using on-board gamma-ray and X-ray instruments. A flurry of activity led to the remarkable discovery that the event occurred roughly 630 million years after the Big Bang. This makes GRB 090423 the most distant known event!"

7 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. I agree - very interesting info by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Perhaps we can then figure out roughly the size of the star that blowed up, in that it can't have been a star that takes more or less than about 600 million years to do that.

    Also, it probably was very weak in heavier elements, so it would have been a very pure collection of hydrogen. So, we're looking at a pretty "pure case" of massive star formation, fuel burning and some kind of hypernova.

    This is really interesting stuff.

    RS

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
    1. Re:I agree - very interesting info by derGoldstein · · Score: 2, Interesting

      At the risk of exposing my ignorance, what lead you to conclude that the star was weak in heavier elements? Considering how far away it was, which reduces the chances of "contaminating events" (collisions and the like), what would have kept it from 'fusing' right up to a nickel-iron core?

      --
      Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
  2. It's fitting... by Daemonax · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "It's fitting, in this 400th anniversary of the astronomical telescope, that the Telescopio Nationale Galileo (TNG) in the Canary Islands would be used to uncover the most distant object ever seen by mankind.

    It's fitting in a numerological sort of way... I'm sure that any day you'd care to pick out in the year could be linked to some date in the past that is also connected with some event in the field of astronomy, whether it be the birthday of a famous astronomer, the discovery of a moon, an extra-solar planet, the day Voyager started photographing or stopped photographing a planet...

    Sorry to be an old grump.... Perhaps it's simply because I found out a very cute girl I know thinks numerology is anything more than utter nonsense and I want better genes for my children...

  3. How far... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I do wonder how far back we can actually see... Is there a time period from which all the light has already passed the Earth?

  4. Not really the oldest event ever seen - CMB by croto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The decoupling of matter and radiation is an extremely interesting event that happened 400,000 years after the big bang. Its nature makes it the oldest possible observable event, and interestingly enough, thanks to experiments as COBE and WMAP we have very pretty pictures of that event.

  5. My own most distant object by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Congrats to the scientists!

    The most distant object I've ever observed was on an astronomy trip to Costa Rica in February. I had set myself the challenge of sighting the nearest star in the night sky (Alpha Centauri C, aka Proxima Centauri), and the most distant object visible in all but the largest amateur-size telescopes, the quasar 3C273.

    I nailed them both in a single night with patience, finder charts and an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain. 4.2 light years and 2.5 to 3 billion, depending on which reference you use. Proxima is in a cluttered Milky Way field, while 3C273 appears to form a double star with a star in the Milky Way, not far from Gamma Virginis.

    ...laura

  6. and how distant was it? by heroine · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Too bad not one article said how distant it was. Still working on that one, but at least we know it's the "most" distant.