Is this the most distant object ever seen?
[Click to deathfromtheskiesenate.]
That is GRB 090429B, a gamma-ray burst (or just GRB to those who want to sound nerdcool), the catastrophic and extremely violent detonation of a massive star. Think of it as a super-supernova, the death throes of a star that lived a short, hot, turbulent life. I wrote about them extensively in my book 'Death from the Skies!', or you can get the details about how they form and why they’re so awesome in an earlier post.
Its distance is estimated to be a whopping 13.14 billion light years. If this holds up, it may be the single most distant object ever seen by humans.
But is this really a record-breaker? And why aren’t we sure? OK, this takes a wee bit o’ explaining, but I think you’ll like it. After all, it’s an explosion so big it’ll crush your mind into dust.
[UPDATE: Due to a typo in my math notes early on, I incorrectly said the distance to this burst was 13.4 billion light years. D'oh! I have corrected all the numbers below, and I ...
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