Whoa...

Amazing news on the astronomy front. Yesterday, March 19, a gamma ray burst was detected that peaked at +5.6 magnitude in visual light, making it the brightest ever seen and briefly visible to the naked eye. It was 7.5 billion light years away. For a brief time, anyone with a dark site and a view of the night sky could see, with their unaided eyes, an event that happened 3 billion years before our planet formed. Words cannot express how stunning this is. Nature never ceases to amaze and intruige me. As always, Phil Plait has lots more info over on Bad Astronomy.