Newly Discovered Star Thing Is High as Hell and Way Far Out

I’ve scheduled this post just in time for 4:20 for a reason.  We (humans) just saw the farthest thing we’ve ever seen.  The faint gamma ray burst, which scientists have given the affectionate nickname GRB 090423, was spotted for ten seconds using the Very Large Telescope in Chile (yes, that’s the actual name of the device).  The burst appears to have burst about 630 million years after the Big Bang or, if you prefer, about five minutes into the first day of Creation, right after God put waffles in the toaster.  It is 13.1 billion years away from our eyes today.

“This burst breaks all the records for galaxies, quasars, anything,” [said] Edo Berger, who led the Gemini observations.

Lead scientist Neil Gehrels confirmed: “This is a fantastic burst.”  The article in Sky and Telescope is kind of funny with quotations like that (“mind-boggling!”), and I think whoever wrote it may have been high himself.

Source: Sky and Telescope.

P.S. – Look at the header of that page, where it shows the cover of Sky and Telescope.  The cover article is PLANET FROM HELL! It’s like a space tabloid mag.