GRB 080319B and a near Clarke Event. in The odd entries from life …….

GRB 080319B was a gamma-ray burst detected at 06:12 UTC on March 19 2008, this gamma-ray burst set a new record for the farthest object to be visible to human eyes. The burst peaked at magnitude 5.8 and was visible for approximately 30 seconds, the magnitude remained brighter than 9.0 for 60 seconds; so if you missed it I expect you are not alone!

Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions observed in the Universe, GRB 080319B was notable for it’s shearer distances from this arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, the distance was shown as 7.5 gigalight-years, I prefer it as the time since the event; 7.5 billion years ago. That means GRB 080319B happened half the time since the Big Bang; or the gamma-ray burst has taken half of the age of the universe to get there.

Before the GRB 080319B event, the Triangulum Galaxy was the most distance object visible to the naked eye at 2.9 million light years; and remains the most distance permanent object viewable without aid.

An other event happed on the March 19 2008, the scientist and Sci-Fi writer Arthur C Clarke passed at the age of ninety, Arthur had contracted polio as a young man, he began to suffer from post-polio syndrome in the mid eighties. The gamma-ray burst passed Earth a few hours before his death, soon it was suggested that this spectacle be named the Clarke Event, I don’t think that idea was taken up; or perhaps it is still pending!

The name Clarke is linked to the geostationary orbit, and people refer to the Clarke Orbit, in a 1945 Clarke wrote paper entitled ‘Extra-Terrestrial Relay’ there he wrote about satellites in a 165.000 mile high orbit where a satellite would remain over one point on Earth; where all our communication satellites hang in a twenty four hour orbit.

Last updated February 12, 2015