GRB 050904

GRB 050 904 is the name of a gamma-ray burst, the clock to 01:51:44 UTC Swift was observed 4 September 2005 with the help of NASA satellite.

The gamma-ray burst occurred at a distance of 12.7 billion light years (z = 6:29 ) and was in the constellation Pisces on the position RA = 00h54m41s Dec = N14 ° 08'17 watching ". The gamma-ray burst lasted about 200 seconds and is one of the long GRBs, which are associated with supernovae. He was until the discovery of gamma-ray burst GRB 080 913 the remote from the earth farthest GRB, and one of the oldest documented events in the universe.

Observation

Progenitor star

The cause of the gamma-ray burst was probably a giant star, whose existence was ended with a huge explosion ages ago. The researchers report in an issue of the British scientific journal "Nature". The explosion 300 times more energy had become free when the sun will emit in its entire life of 10 billion years ago in a few minutes. Generally, scientists suspect that long gamma-ray bursts are due to extremely massive, collapsing stars, so-called hypernovae. From the data, the researchers now hope to provide new insights into the formation of the first stars and galaxies in the early universe.

Distance

The gamma-ray burst presented at a distance of about 12.7 billion light- years on a new distance record for GRBs and is until today 's third oldest documented event in the universe. In the distance he is surpassed only by the 13 September 2008 registered GRB 080 913 by about 70 million light-years. The gigantic collapse occurred less than 900 million years after the Big Bang, a time at which the universe had just reached about 6 % of its present age, first stars and galaxies had just formed.

The distance record for a cosmic explosion topped the previous one by almost 500 million light years. The previous record holder was a distance of 12.3 billion light years (z = 4.5).

Afterglow

The first indication for its removal brought the realization that the persistence ( afterglow ) could not be measured in the optical range, but wavelengths were detected in the infrared. The large distance to the GRB has the consequence that the radiation is shifted to a lower wavelength because of the red shift of energy. Because of the material caused by the gamma between flash and absorption does not reach the earth are UV and the emitted gamma radiation.