GRB 090429B was a

gamma-ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten milli ...

observed on 29 April 2009 by the Burst Alert Telescope aboard the

Swift satellite Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, previously called the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, is a NASA three-telescope space observatory for studying gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and monitoring the afterglow in X-ray, and UV/Visible light at the location o ...

. The burst triggered a standard burst-response observation sequence, which started 106 seconds after the burst. The X-ray telescope aboard the satellite identified an uncatalogued fading source. No optical or UV counterpart was seen in the UV–optical telescope. Around 2.5 hours after the burst trigger, a series of observations was carried out by the

Gemini North The Gemini Observatory is an astronomical observatory consisting of two 8.1-metre (26.6 ft) telescopes, Gemini North and Gemini South, which are located at two separate sites in Hawaii and Chile, respectively. The twin Gemini telescopes prov ...

telescope, which detected a bright object in the infrared part of the spectrum. No evidence of a host galaxy was found either by Gemini North or by the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

. Though this burst was detected in 2009, it was not until May 2011 that its distance estimate of 13.14 billion light-years was announced. With 90% likelihood, the burst had a

photometric redshift A photometric redshift is an estimate for the recession velocity of an astronomical object such as a galaxy or quasar, made without measuring its spectrum. The technique uses photometry (that is, the brightness of the object viewed through various ...

greater than ''z'' = 9.06, which would make it the most distant GRB known, although the error bar on this estimate is large, providing a lower limit of ''z'' > 7.Space Daily
Explosion Helps Researcher Spot Universe's Most Distant Object
27 May 2011 The amount of energy released in the burst was estimated at 3.5 × 10⁵²

erg The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10−7joules (100 nJ). It originated in the Centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). It has the symbol ''erg''. The erg is not an SI unit. Its name is derived from (), a Greek word meaning 'work' o ...

. For a comparison, the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

's luminosity is 3.8 × 10³³ erg/s.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:GRB 090429B 090429B 20090429 April 2009 events Canes Venatici

See also

References