The Farthest Explosion Yet Measured
Explanation:
It happened so far away that common human
distance measures
are inadequate to describe it.
Furthermore, astronomers do not even claim to know
exactly what happened.
What is known is that
satellites across our Solar System
reported on
2000 January 31 a tremendous explosion of
gamma rays
had occurred towards some previously
uninteresting direction.
Soon one of the largest optical telescopes on Earth, a
VLT in Chile,
began to peer in the direction of the
gamma ray burst.
The
VLT
not only recorded an
optical counterpart,
shown above,
but also was
able
to estimate that the cosmologically-induced
redshift
was an astonishing 4.5 --
placing GRB000131
farther across the universe
than any explosion so measured.
This vast distance indicates that GRB000131 occurred
just as galaxies like our
Milky Way were forming,
and so qualifies
gamma ray bursts
as unique probes of this
ancient epoch.
This result bodes well for the recently launched
HETE-2 satellite,
which may record and help place more explosions in this
distant and
mysterious time-period of our universe.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
