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13 billion year old explosion detected

Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Michael Kanellos is editor at large at CNET News.com, where he covers hardware, research and development, start-ups and the tech industry overseas.
Michael Kanellos

Scientists at Caltech have detected an explosion at the far edge of the visible universe that likely close to the time of the Big Bang.

The gamma-ray burst, discovered September 4, likely marked the death of a massive star as it collapsed into a black hole. It comes from an era soon after stars and galaxies first formed, about 500 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang, which occurred around 13.7 billion years before. At 13 million light years billion light years from earth, it is also the most distant explosion from earth yet detected.