Star Blast from the Past

The oldest object so far detected in the Universe was recently observed by Astronomers following a gamma-ray burst that was picked up by NASA's Swift Gamma-Ray Telescope.  The after-glow was also observed by Leicester University's Infra-Red telescope in Hawaii.  The object responsible for the explosion was a progenitor star which has since been designated GRB 090423 and is estimated to have exploded 13 billion years ago, a mere 600 million years after the Big Bang occurred. http://j.mp/sDR2H