13.7 Billion Years(Gamma Ray Burst)

A gamma-ray burst detected by NASA's Swift satellite in April 2009 has been newly unveiled as a candidate for the most distant object in the universe. In this video, former Penn State University graduate student Antonino Cucchiara discusses this research at a press conference at the 218th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Boston, Massachusetts, on 25 May 2011.

 25 May 2011 — A gamma-ray burst detected by NASA's Swift satellite in April 2009 has been newly unveiled as a candidate for the most distant object in the universe. At an estimated distance of 13.14 billion light years, the burst lies far beyond any known quasar and could be more distant than any previously known galaxy or gamma-ray burst. Multiple lines of evidence in favor of a record-breaking distance for this burst, known as GRB 090429B for the 29 April 2009 date when it was discovered, are presented in a paper by an international team of astronomers led by former Penn State University graduate student Antonino Cucchiara, now at the University of California, Berkeley. The paper has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. (A PDF of the paper is available here.) See: Cosmic Explosion is New Candidate for Most Distant Object in the Universe