Most Distant Gamma Ray Burst Detected
In an announcement and paper published this week in the journal Nature, available online here, astronomers have calculated that the gamma ray burst known as GRB 090423 is now the most distant gamma ray burst detected. With a redshift of 8.2, it is estimated that the gamma ray burst actually occurred about 620 million years after the big bang formation of the universe. The previous highest recorded redshift of a gamma ray burst was 6.7, which would make that occurence taking place about 820 million years ago.