Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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!"

6 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. It's natural by UnixUnix · · Score: 5, Funny

    After the Big Bang... comes the Big Cigarette.

  2. 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.
  3. Slashdot is late again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This happened billions of years ago, and Slashdot is just reporting it now?

    1. Re:Slashdot is late again by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Funny

      At least it's not a dupe!

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
  4. Re:Telescopio Nazionale Galileo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did you really have to Godwin the thread so early?

  5. 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.