29-04-09 Nasa scientists snap most distant object in the universe

Astronomers at Nasa have snapped a picture of the most distant object ever seen in the universe – a titanic burst of energy from a dying star 13 billion light years away.The "gamma ray burst" is so far away that its light has taken almost the entire age of the universe to reach us.When the light began its journey,travelling at 186,000 miles per second,only 640 million years had passed since the Big Bang that marked the dawn of creation.The event,designated GRB 090423,was first detected by the American space agency Nasa's Swift satellite,which is designed to spot gamma ray bursts.After Swift recorded an initial blast of gamma and X-rays,ground-based telescopes swivelled to aim at the same point in the sky and observed a fading afterglow of infra-red light.Scientists believe the burst was caused by a massive star collapsing and exploding at the end of its life,leaving a black hole.Dr Nial Tanvir,from the University of Leicester,said:"This is the most remote gamma-ray burst ever detected,and also the most distant object ever discovered – by some way."