Astronomers claim star is universe’s oldest

Scientists say event opens path to understanding how the first galaxies were born.

star, space,

The star’s birth – an explosion that occurred just 520 million years after the ‘Big Bang’ makes the celestial body one of the earliest stars of the Universe.

The event known as a gamma ray burst  – a sudden blast of intense light – was just detected by NASA’s Swift satellite in 2009 – implying that it took those light rays a record-breaking 13.14 billion years to reach earth.

Al Jazeera spoke to Dr Antonino Cucchiara to explain the phenomenon.

Source: Al Jazeera