Scientists Spot Oldest Object in Universe

By Queuebot in Science & Tech on Apr 30, 2009 at 6:20 am

I don’t know about you, but each time I read this kind of news my head spins. Scientists have detected a gamma ray burst that dates back 13 billion years, 95 percent back to the beginning of time. That makes it the oldest thing ever seen. Astronomer Edo Berger was blown away by the information.

The star which exploded was 30 to 100 times larger than our own sun, and when it died, it gave off “about million times the amount of energy the sun will release in its entire lifetime,” Berger told CNN by phone from Harvard University, where he is an assistant professor of astronomy.

Its death throes produced so much energy that “momentarily, we can essentially see it anywhere in the universe,” Berger said.

The object, known as GRB 090423, is about 200 million years older than the previous record-holder for oldest object ever seen.

Berger isn’t just interested in the record books, though — the gamma ray burst extended the frontiers of human knowledge about the history of the universe.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by scbr.


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  1. GQ
    Apr 30th, 2009 at 7:16 am

    This is fantastic news.

  2. nickolas_warner
    Apr 30th, 2009 at 9:26 am

    I still question how anyone can even make a slightly educated guess about these things.

  3. mikos
    Apr 30th, 2009 at 10:24 am

    @nickolas: Maybe you should look into it and explain to us why you think it is questionable.

  4. Ben Eshbach
    Apr 30th, 2009 at 11:20 am

    nickolas_warner: agreed.

  5. Xinavera
    Apr 30th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    Any sufficiently arcane science is indistinguishable from “just making stuff up” to most people.

    Seriously, if you want an explanation of how we know it’s so far away, I’d be happy to explain it. It’s actually pretty straight forward though certainly unexpected.

  6. Squeal
    May 1st, 2009 at 12:11 am

    I thought there was going to be a picture of Bea Arthur, but sadly we can’t even use that joke anymore.

    R.I.P.B!


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