Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Space Explosion Is Farthest Thing Ever Seen (gamma-ray burst about 13 billion light-years away)
Space.com on Yahoo ^ | 4/28/09

Posted on 04/28/2009 8:54:57 AM PDT by NormsRevenge

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last

1 posted on 04/28/2009 8:54:57 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

Once a gamma-ray burst is detected from space, other telescopes take a look. Here, the fading infrared afterglow of GRB 090423 appears in the center of this false-color image taken with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii. The burst is the farthest cosmic explosion yet seen. Credit: Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA, D. Fox and A. Cucchiara (Penn State Univ.) and E. Berger (Harvard Univ.)


2 posted on 04/28/2009 8:56:35 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
The gamma-ray burst came from about 13 billion light-years away, and represents a relic from when the universe was just 630 million years old.

I suppose this could be accurate, but I find it surprising. It seems almost like watching the Big Bang occur.

3 posted on 04/28/2009 8:57:51 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (American Revolution II -- overdue)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

How was it determined that this was “about 13 billion light-years away”?


4 posted on 04/28/2009 8:58:01 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_shift


5 posted on 04/28/2009 8:59:44 AM PDT by mnehring
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
"Yeah, and that'll lead you to another clue. And that's all you'll ever find, is another clue."


6 posted on 04/28/2009 9:09:47 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
a relic from when the universe was just 630 million years old.

No pictures of you-know-who!

7 posted on 04/28/2009 9:11:06 AM PDT by agere_contra
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
"So astronomers are seeing this particular burst as it existed 13 billion years ago, because the light took that long to reach Earth observers."

Ummmm....I don't get it. If this is right, we are assuming that the universe was as large (the expansion from 13 billion years) as it is today.

8 posted on 04/28/2009 9:13:17 AM PDT by mosaicwolf (Strength and Honor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

Can someone explain to this layman how a start can form and explode within 630million years, while our star has existed for at least 4.5 billion years?


9 posted on 04/28/2009 9:14:31 AM PDT by thefrankbaum (Ad maiorem Dei gloriam)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thefrankbaum

start=star


10 posted on 04/28/2009 9:14:51 AM PDT by thefrankbaum (Ad maiorem Dei gloriam)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring
Obviously long baseline interferometry is inadequate in such a task so they were undoubtedly reduced to counting bars in the spectrum to see where helium, e.t. al were at.

Whether or not you agree with the appellation of "light years" this is the result you get when you use that method.

It's a long way away, Fur Shur. "Over yonder" if you catch my drift.

11 posted on 04/28/2009 9:15:59 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: thefrankbaum

Different star, different mass, different gravity ~ happens all the time.


12 posted on 04/28/2009 9:16:42 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring
How was it determined that this was “about 13 billion light-years away”?

Simple.


13 posted on 04/28/2009 9:19:05 AM PDT by Lazamataz ("We beat the Soviet Union, then we became them." -- Lazamataz, 2005)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: mosaicwolf
Not eactly. This is telling you what it was like 13 billion years ago. We were much closer then. Of course we were also part of a dust cloud and only later were compressed into atoms by red giants and then exploded out to reform as the chunks of stuff that collided together to form this (or another) planet.

We've been exploding outward with the expansion of the Universe, so that explosion of 13 billion years ago was, it turns out, lagging behind us a bit.

14 posted on 04/28/2009 9:19:10 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Lazamataz; DuncanWaring

The one with the extra long tape.


15 posted on 04/28/2009 9:19:48 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: thefrankbaum
Can someone explain to this layman how a start can form and explode within 630million years, while our star has existed for at least 4.5 billion years?

Because our star slept in a Holiday Inn last night.

16 posted on 04/28/2009 9:20:29 AM PDT by Lazamataz ("We beat the Soviet Union, then we became them." -- Lazamataz, 2005)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: mosaicwolf; thefrankbaum; NormsRevenge; Fred Nerks

All of this distance hoopla is based on the red shift...but that is now in serious question by a Scientist who was an associate of Hubble...we had a thread on that....will see if I can find it.


17 posted on 04/28/2009 9:21:59 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: thefrankbaum
Can someone explain to this layman how a start can form and explode within 630million years, while our star has existed for at least 4.5 billion years?

Hypergiant stars (100+ solar masses) have incredibly short lifespans (1 million years) compared to main sequence (our sun .. 1 solar mass and 10 billion years).

18 posted on 04/28/2009 9:22:06 AM PDT by Centurion2000 (We either Free America ourselves, or it is midnight for humanity for a thousand years.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring

This has always made me wonder....

If this light was emitted 13 billion years ago,
And our galaxy probably did not even exist at that time,
And the universe had not expanded to the current region of our galaxy yet,
And this light has traveled 13 billion light years to get here,
How did the matter that makes up our galaxy out-run this light so that we could be here when the light eventually arrived 13 billion years later?

hmmmm... I must be dumb.


19 posted on 04/28/2009 9:25:18 AM PDT by DigitalVideoDude (It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit. -Ronald Reagan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Good pictures on this thread:

Trio of Galaxies Play Tug of War

.

20 posted on 04/28/2009 9:31:49 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson