May 27, 2011 - SpaceRef.com
In a game of cosmological one-upmanship, what is likely the most distant gamma ray burst (GRB) ever detected could be presenting humanity with a glimpse back to within about half a billion years of the Big Bang. "Like any finding of this sort there are uncertainties," said the study's principal investigator Antonino Cucchiara. "However, if I were in Vegas, I would never bet against the odds that this is the most distant GRB ever seen and we estimate that there is even a 23% chance that it is the most distant object ever observed in the universe."
A unique set of images from the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii clearly reveals the infrared afterglow of this powerful burst. More importantly, the data allowed the researchers to estimate its distance with a relatively high degree of certainty, placing it near the edge of the observable universe.
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