Advertisement

Swift sees farthest gamma-ray burst

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says its Swift satellite has found the most distant gamma-ray burst ever detected.

NASA said the blast -- designated GRB 080913 -- came from an exploding star 12.8 billion light-years away. The burst occurred less than 825 million years after the universe began, when the universe was less than one-seventh its current age.

Advertisement

"This is the most amazing burst Swift has seen," said scientist Neil Gehrels at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It's coming to us from near the edge of the visible universe."

Gamma rays from the explosion triggered Swift's Burst Alert Telescope at 1:47 a.m. EDT Sept. 13.

Swift, launched in November 2004, has so far detected the brightest gamma-ray burst, which was visible to the human eye despite occurring billions of light-years away. In January, the spacecraft's instruments caught the first X-rays from a new supernova days before optical astronomers saw the exploding star.

Swift is managed by Goddard, with international collaborators including the University of Leicester and Mullard Space Sciences Laboratory in England, Brera Observatory and the Italian Space Agency in Italy, and additional partners in Germany and Japan.

Advertisement

Latest Headlines