Cosmic Explosion is New Candidate for 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. - Watch this
video on YouTube - Watch the full-length press conference.
(Available as a 532MB download from the AAS website.) 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 studen