GRB090423 at a redshift of z~8.1

Salvaterra, R.; Della Valle, M.; Campana, S.; Chincarini, G.; Covino, S.; D'Avanzo, P.; Fernández-Soto, A.; Guidorzi, C.; Mannucci, F.; Margutti, R.; Thöne, C. C.; Antonelli, L. A.; Barthelmy, S. D.; de Pasquale, M.; D'Elia, V.; Fiore, F.; Fugazza, D.; Hunt, L. K.; Maiorano, E.; Marinoni, S.; Marshall, F. E.; Molinari, E.; Nousek, J.; Pian, E.; Racusin, J. L.; Stella, L.; Amati, L.; Andreuzzi, G.; Cusumano, G.; Fenimore, E. E.; Ferrero, P.; Giommi, P.; Guetta, D.; Holland, S. T.; Hurley, K.; Israel, G. L.; Mao, J.; Markwardt, C. B.; Masetti, N.; Pagani, C.; Palazzi, E.; Palmer, D. M.; Piranomonte, S.; Tagliaferri, G.; Testa, V.
Referencia bibliográfica

Nature, Volume 461, Issue 7268, pp. 1258-1260 (2009).

Fecha de publicación:
10
2009
Revista
Número de autores
45
Número de autores del IAC
0
Número de citas
456
Número de citas referidas
375
Descripción
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are produced by rare types of massive stellar explosion. Their rapidly fading afterglows are often bright enough at optical wavelengths that they are detectable at cosmological distances. Hitherto, the highest known redshift for a GRB was z = 6.7 (ref. 1), for GRB080913, and for a galaxy was z = 6.96 (ref. 2). Here we report observations of GRB090423 and the near-infrared spectroscopic measurement of its redshift, z = . This burst happened when the Universe was only about 4 per cent of its current age. Its properties are similar to those of GRBs observed at low/intermediate redshifts, suggesting that the mechanisms and progenitors that gave rise to this burst about 600,000,000years after the Big Bang are not markedly different from those producing GRBs about 10,000,000,000years later.