Cosmic distance record 'broken'

[Gerald]

A cataclysmic explosion of a huge star near the edge of the observable Universe may be the most distant single object yet spied by a telescope.

Scientists believe the blast, which was detected by Nasa's Swift space observatory, occurred a mere 520 million years after the Big Bang.

This means its light has taken a staggering 13.14 billion years to reach Earth.

Details of the discovery will appear shortly in the Astrophysical Journal.

The event, which was picked up by Swift in April 2009, is referred to by astronomers using the designation GRB 090429B.

The "GRB" stands for "gamma-ray burst" - a sudden pulse of very high-energy light that the telescope is tuned to find on the sky.

These bursts are usually associated with extremely violent processes, such as the end-of-life collapse of giant stars.

"It would have been a huge star, perhaps 30 times the mass of our Sun," said lead researcher Dr Antonino Cucchiara from the University of California, Berkeley.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13539914


Note: 25 May 2011 Last updated at 18:12 GMT

[TLAM Strike]

I recall hearing they found a quasar older than the projected age of the universe recently. Not sure what became of that.

[FIREWALL]

:salute: Vendor :up: btw. Is that distance as the the crow flies. :haha:

[Gerald]

:salute: Vendor :up: btw. Is that distance as the the crow flies. :haha: Hey....:o.....good question :DL

[CCIP]

:salute: Vendor :up: btw. Is that distance as the the crow flies. :haha:

I believe that comes out to

3 939 272 900 000 000 000 000 000 km

Not bad :hmmm:

[Torplexed]

Really really far out. :cool:

The implication in all this is that the early universe was already a busy star factory.

[Gerald]

Yes, one can safely say .... and it will hardly be any stop along the way if you want to stay and buy something....

[Wolfehunter]

You wonder that it too soo long for that view of the exploding start to show itself now after soo many many years. It should make us wonder also that if there are intelligent life out there looking at our star.. Maybe there seeing dinosaurs still on the earth hahaa.. No visitors anytime soon guys :O: No intelligent life on earth yet. hahaa..

:hmmm: Interesting concept no?

[Gerald]

You wonder that it too soo long for that view of the exploding start to show itself now after soo many many years. It should make us wonder also that if there are intelligent life out there looking at our star.. Maybe there seeing dinosaurs still on the earth hahaa.. No visitors anytime soon guys :O: No intelligent life on earth yet. hahaa..

:hmmm: Interesting concept no? You are right in what you say .... and if "there is" some potent viewers from other planets as they discover soon that the Tellus where is this lot of trouble, ;)

[vienna]

...and they probably get better wireless service out there than I do here...

[Gerald]

...and they probably get better wireless service out there than I do here... Sounds like taking aim at an upgrade of the system, :03:

[Pisces]

:salute: Vendor :up: btw. Is that distance as the the crow flies. :haha:I think the crow would be long dead if it tried to cross that distance.

[Platapus]

:salute: Vendor :up: btw. Is that distance as the the crow flies. :haha:

African or European?

[TLAM Strike]

I think the crow would be long dead if it tried to cross that distance.
depends on velocity, at near c time can do crazy things...:03:

[CaptainMattJ.]

African or European?

what!? i dont know that!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

[Gerald]

African or European? Nice one, :DL

[kiwi_2005]

So if we ever get to the stage where we design star ships that can travel at the speed of light or faster we would still need worm holes or gates to explore outside our galaxy. :hmmm: Otherwise it would still take 1000's of light years to reach the nearest planet while traveling at the speed of light. Just thinking about how massive the universe is annoys me.

[Gerald]

So if we ever get to the stage where we design star ships that can travel at the speed of light or faster we would still need worm holes or gates to explore outside our galaxy. :hmmm: Otherwise it would still take 1000's of light years to reach the nearest planet while traveling at the speed of light. Just thinking about how massive the universe is annoys me. You may begin to think long-term ......:doh:

[Raptor1]

So if we ever get to the stage where we design star ships that can travel at the speed of light or faster we would still need worm holes or gates to explore outside our galaxy. :hmmm: Otherwise it would still take 1000's of light years to reach the nearest planet while traveling at the speed of light. Just thinking about how massive the universe is annoys me.

We'd need worm holes or gates or some sort of other handwavium to travel at the speed of light or faster in the first place, Einstein (Damn him! :stare:) made that all impossible with relativity.

Anyway, there are plenty of (suspected) extrasolar planets within 1,000 light years. The closest, IIRC, is Epsilon Eridani at 10 light years, which would only take about 11 years to get to assuming a constant acceleration of 1 G (And the crew would only experience less than half that too).

[TLAM Strike]

So if we ever get to the stage where we design star ships that can travel at the speed of light or faster we would still need worm holes or gates to explore outside our galaxy. :hmmm: Otherwise it would still take 1000's of light years to reach the nearest planet while traveling at the speed of light. Just thinking about how massive the universe is annoys me.
Depends on the perspective of the observer. For the observer sitting on Earth the spaceship takes 1,000 years to reach its destination 1,000 lyrs away at c. For the crew of the ship traveling at c time dilates and they experience time and age at a slower rate. At .9999 c the crew takes only about 150 years to get there. :know:

[Betonov]

Food for thought

When they invent faster than light travel, they'd invent extremly powerfull telescopes. Now imagine traveling 4000 light years away and observe the pyramids being built

[Gerald]

Food for thought

When they invent faster than light travel, they'd invent extremly powerfull telescopes. Now imagine traveling 4000 light years away and observe the pyramids being built I look forward to it, :DL

[vienna]

Back to the future?...Past?...?

I still wonder how humans will ever travel long distances in space with the problems of bone mass loss, weightlessness complications and the like; would an "artifical gravity" ever really compensate for these problems?

[Gerald]

Back to the future?...Past?...?

I still wonder how humans will ever travel long distances in space with the problems of bone mass loss, weightlessness complications and the like; would an "artifical gravity" ever really compensate for these problems? Past...

[vienna]

But, if you are moving forward in your timeline to see something occuring in the past, are you really moving forward...or is it all some big Moebios Strip...

[Diopos]

I look forward to it, :DL

Nope, you look backward to it ...:hmmm:

:DL

.

[Gerald]

Nope, you look backward to it ...:hmmm:

:DL

. Hmmm.....that kind of deep thinking mind is far too early in the day,
:haha:

[Gerald]

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/250/teleportation0129.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/teleportation0129.jpg/)

Beam Us Up Teleportation doesn't work for humans — yet — but it works over long distances, a new study reports. Scientists in China have broken the record for quantum teleportation, achieving a distance of about 10 miles, according to a new study in Nature Photonics. That's a giant leap from previous achievements.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-05/researchers-achieve-quantum-teleportation-over-10-miles

[Sailor Steve]

Okay, they teleported something that they can't see, feel or touch. Their instruments tell them they accomplished this. No, wait. They didn't really teleport it, they "entangled" it with another object they couldn't see, feel or touch, and it magically came out the other end of a long tube...

I'm not saying it's not real. I'm just saying it sounds too much like evil juju for my primitive old brain to comprehend. :dead:

And Vendor, when you quote things would you please use "quotation marks" when you quote something. Too often it sounds like your own words when it's not.

[Raptor1]

Back to the future?...Past?...?

I still wonder how humans will ever travel long distances in space with the problems of bone mass loss, weightlessness complications and the like; would an "artifical gravity" ever really compensate for these problems?

Well, if your spacecraft is built intelligently (That is, floor in the same direction as your engines), your own acceleration will provide gravity. If you go somewhere and can manage a constant acceleration of 1 G, the crew will be feeling the same gravity as on Earth for practically the entire trip.

Besides that, you can always have rotating sections, of course, which would have a similar effect but would cause other problems with your spacecraft design.

[Platapus]

Nice one, :DL

Just an example of the Monty Python Axiom (MPA)

Any discussion on the Internets Tubes can be hijacked by some quote from Monty Python.

:yeah:

[Gerald]

Okay, they teleported something that they can't see, feel or touch. Their instruments tell them they accomplished this. No, wait. They didn't really teleport it, they "entangled" it with another object they couldn't see, feel or touch, and it magically came out the other end of a long tube...

I'm not saying it's not real. I'm just saying it sounds too much like evil juju for my primitive old brain to comprehend. :dead:

And Vendor, when you quote things would you please use "quotation marks" when you quote something. Too often it sounds like your own words when it's not. Thanks for the advice, I'm working on it :DL

[Pisces]

depends on velocity, at near c time can do crazy things...:03:And how do you think it will attain such a velocity?

[Gerald]

And the answer to this question is ....?

[Gerald]

TLAM Strike! Can you provide additional information, which is mathematically interesting to the thread, :hmmm: