Skip to content
Space & Spaceflight

This Is a Star Exploding 12.1 Billion Years Ago

By

Reading time 1 minute

Comments (0)

You’re looking back in time. A long, long, long way back in time. This is an image of a star exploding just after the Big Bang happened.

This gamma ray burst was detected by Southern Methodist University in Dallas on April 19th, and because of the vast size of the Universe it’s taken a staggering 12.1 billion years to reach Earth. It’s a rare insight into the breathtaking beginnings of our Universe—and is going to be studied in detail to try and understand more about the beginning of time. [SMU via Science Daily via Engadget]

Image credit by Southern Methodist University

Explore more on these topics

Share this story

Sign up for our newsletters

Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more.