Open AccessThe brightest thing for 7.4 billion light years
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
astronomy & geophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.168
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1468-4004
pISSN - 1366-8781
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-4004.2008.49504_10.x
Subject(s) - astronomy , history , astrobiology , physics
March this year saw a gamma‐ray burst 100 times brighter than any observed. Its unusual brightness, enough to make it a naked‐eye object, arose because the beam of radiation was directed towards Earth, making it magnitude 5.3 at its peak – not bad for something halfway across the universe!