Publication Date:
2009-10-30
Description:
Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to result from the explosions of certain massive stars, and some are bright enough that they should be observable out to redshifts of z 〉 20 using current technology. Hitherto, the highest redshift measured for any object was z = 6.96, for a Lyman-alpha emitting galaxy. Here we report that GRB 090423 lies at a redshift of z approximately 8.2, implying that massive stars were being produced and dying as GRBs approximately 630 Myr after the Big Bang. The burst also pinpoints the location of its host galaxy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tanvir, N R -- Fox, D B -- Levan, A J -- Berger, E -- Wiersema, K -- Fynbo, J P U -- Cucchiara, A -- Kruhler, T -- Gehrels, N -- Bloom, J S -- Greiner, J -- Evans, P A -- Rol, E -- Olivares, F -- Hjorth, J -- Jakobsson, P -- Farihi, J -- Willingale, R -- Starling, R L C -- Cenko, S B -- Perley, D -- Maund, J R -- Duke, J -- Wijers, R A M J -- Adamson, A J -- Allan, A -- Bremer, M N -- Burrows, D N -- Castro-Tirado, A J -- Cavanagh, B -- de Ugarte Postigo, A -- Dopita, M A -- Fatkhullin, T A -- Fruchter, A S -- Foley, R J -- Gorosabel, J -- Kennea, J -- Kerr, T -- Klose, S -- Krimm, H A -- Komarova, V N -- Kulkarni, S R -- Moskvitin, A S -- Mundell, C G -- Naylor, T -- Page, K -- Penprase, B E -- Perri, M -- Podsiadlowski, P -- Roth, K -- Rutledge, R E -- Sakamoto, T -- Schady, P -- Schmidt, B P -- Soderberg, A M -- Sollerman, J -- Stephens, A W -- Stratta, G -- Ukwatta, T N -- Watson, D -- Westra, E -- Wold, T -- Wolf, C -- England -- Nature. 2009 Oct 29;461(7268):1254-7. doi: 10.1038/nature08459.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK. nrt3@star.le.ac.uk〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19865165" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink
