By Ron Cowen
Seconds after NASA’s Swift satellite recorded a gamma-ray burst on Sept. 4, astronomers’ cell phones buzzed, beepers went off, and an e-mail alert flashed on more than 1,000 computer screens. It was the 68th time that Swift had notified astronomers about a cosmic explosion, and this one didn’t initially appear to be exceptional.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2005/09/5280.jpg?resize=300%2C209&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2005/09/5281.jpg?resize=150%2C141&ssl=1)
But this week, a team of astronomers announced that the burst is the most distant one ever detected, hailing from the long-ago era when galaxies and stars first lit up the heavens. The finding suggests that researchers may soon detect even more-distant bursts that will illuminate the epoch before there were massive light-emitting objects such as quasars and large galaxies.