Scientists spot oldest ever object in universe

[Abacus]

Source: CNN

Edo Berger got an alert early last Thursday morning when a satellite detected a 10-second blast of energy known as a gamma ray burst coming from outer space.

Telescopes around the world swiveled to focus on the explosion, soon picking up infrared radiation, which travels more slowly than gamma rays. Berger waited for the visible light which he expected to come next.

It never arrived.

"We were kind of blown away. We immediately knew what that meant," Berger said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/29/gamma.ray.burst.space/index.html

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[Dogtown]

1. Cool! n/t

[valerief]

2. Oh, that's gonna piss off Mrs. Greenspan!

But 600 million years old? I wonder if I can use a telescope to see freeper heads exploding now.

:rofl:

[Kutjara]

5. Actually, it's 13 billion years old.

The explosion occurred 600 million years after the formation of the Universe. So the freepers heads will explode 20 times more violently. Good job there's nothing inside them, or the detonation could be dangerous.

[Ozymanithrax]

8. If there is nothing inside their heads...

that would be an implosion, which is every bit as capable as an explosion of throwing freepercrap to the farthest reaches of the universe.

[valerief]

13. Ah, yes, thanks. I misread those two paragraphs. Oh, the streets

are gonna be filled with freeper head porridge!

:rofl:

[Patsy Stone]

3. What's John McCain doing in space anyhow? nt

[ixion]

4. silly scientist... the universe is only 6k years old

so he's just seeing what GOD wants him to see. :sarcasm:

[RedCloud]

6. So is Einstein finally wrong???

What it meant was that he was looking at the oldest thing ever spotted -- an enormous star exploding 13 billion years ago.

"At that point the age of the universe was only 600 million years," he said. In other words, Berger said, he was looking "95 percent of the way back to the beginning of time."


My input here. If we are just now getting that image how far away from "us" was it back then and why did it take so long to get here? Presuming that light was traveling at the speed of light, how fast was the universe traveling away from itself so to speak such that the light is JUST NOW arriving? Was it almost as fast as the speed of light? Faster then but now slower? Maybe the light hooked around the "never ending" universe and is back for a second loop?

Or could it be that the universe sprang forth from something much larger than a cosmic egg, say a megadimensional crack the length of many galaxies?

Or perhaps the universe keeps having new areas spring forth only our science isn't into that way of thinking yet.

[Hugabear]

9. It's Satan's way of confusing mankind. See post #4

God/Satan likes to screw with people.

[wizstars]

12. God? Satan? aren't they the same guy?

he just dresses funny sometimes.....

[Ozymanithrax]

10. Within microseconds, the universe expanded to

its vast size. It does not violate Einstein's theories. So that star is 13 billion light years away, giver or take a few million light nears.

[Soylent Brice]

7. check this out too.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=228&topic_id=51379&mesg_id=51379

farthest object in known space.

[Bennyboy]

11. Regis Philbin! the guy is everywhere!!!!

[Deja Q]

14. Now we know why Bob Dole needs viagra.

Wait, that's for impotence. Not premature ejac...

:hide:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

15. Abe Vigoda?

Rumor has it he IS still alive... :evilgrin:

[santamargarita]

16. Which one is the oldest?

:think: