A γ-ray burst at a redshift of z ≈ 8.2

Creators: Tanvir, N. R.; Fox, D. B.; Levan, A. J.; Berger, E.; Wiersema, K.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Cucchiara, A.; Krühler, T.; Gehrels, N.; Bloom, J. S.; Greiner, J.; Evans, P. A.; Rol, E.; Olivares, F.; Hjorth, J.; Jakobsson, P.; Farihi, J.; Willingale, R.; Starling, R. L. C.; Cenko, S. B.; Perley, D.; Maund, J. R.; Duke, J.; Wijers, R. A. M. J.; Adamson, A. J.; Allan, A.; Bremer, M. N.; Burrows, D. N.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Cavanagh, B.; de Ugarte Postigo, A.; Dopita, M. A.; Fatkhullin, T. A.; Fruchter, A. S.; Foley, R. J.; Gorosabel, J.; Kennea, J.; Kerr, T.; Klose, S.; Krimm, H. A.; Komarova, V. N.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Moskvitin, A. S.; Mundell, C. G.; Naylor, T.; Page, K.; Penprase, B. E.; Perri, M.; Podsiadlowski, P.; Roth, K.; Rutledge, R. E.; Sakamoto, T.; Schady, P.; Schmidt, B. P.; Soderberg, A. M.; Sollerman, J.; Stephens, A. W.; Stratta, G.; Ukwatta, T. N.; Watson, D.; Westra, E.; Wold, T.; Wolf, C.

Abstract

Long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to result from the explosions of certain massive stars, and some are bright enough that they should be observable out to redshifts of z > 20 using current technology. Hitherto, the highest redshift measured for any object was z = 6.96, for a Lyman-α emitting galaxy. Here we report that GRB 090423 lies at a redshift of z ≈ 8.2, implying that massive stars were being produced and dying as GRBs ~630 Myr after the Big Bang. The burst also pinpoints the location of its host galaxy.

Additional Information

© 2009 Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. Received 3 June 2009; Accepted 19 August 2009. We thank Ph. Yock, B. Allen, P. Kubanek, M. Jelinek and S. Guziy for their assistance with the BOOTES-3 YA telescope observations (Supplementary Information). This work was partly based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the US National Science Foundation on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), the Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia (Brazil) and SECYT (Argentina). This work was also partly based on observations made using ESO telescopes at the La Silla or Paranal observatories by G. Carraro, L. Schmidtobreick, G. Marconi, J. Smoker, V. Ivanov, E. Mason and M. Huertas-Company. The UKIRT is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. R.J.F. acknowledges a Clay Fellowship. Author Contributions: Triggering observations: N.R.T., D.B.F., A.J.L., E.B., J.S.B., D.P., J. Greiner, A.J.C.-T., A.d.U.P.; analysis of ground-based data: N.R.T., D.B.F., A.J.L., E.B., K.W., J.P.U.F., A.C., J.S.B., J.F., J.D., J. Gorosabel, B.C., D.P., J.R.M., T. Kru¨hler, A.J.C.-T., A.d.U.P., C.G.M.; Swift analysis: P.A.E., R.L.C.S., K.P., R.W., A.J.L., N.R.T., N.G., D.W., P.S., T.S.; observations at various observatories and their automation to accept GRB overrides: A.J.A., A.A., T. Kerr, T.N., A.W.S., K.R., T.W. All authors made contributions through their involvement in the programmes from which the data derive, and contributed to the interpretation, content and discussion presented here. Writing was led by N.R.T., A.J.L., D.B.F. and E.B.

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