 | |
| Event type | Gamma-ray burst  |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Canes Venatici |
| Right ascension | 14h 02m 40.10s |
| Declination | +32° 10′ 14.6″ |
| Total energy output | 3.5 × 1052 erg |
| Other designations | GRB 090429B |
GRB 090429B was a gamma-ray burst observed on 29 April 2009 by the Burst Alert Telescope aboard the Swift satellite. The burst triggered a standard burst-response observation sequence, which started 106 seconds after the burst.[1] The X-ray telescope aboard the satellite identified an uncatalogued fading source. No optical or UV counterpart was seen in the UV–optical telescope. Around 2.5 hours after the burst trigger, a series of observations was carried out by the Gemini North telescope, which detected a bright object in the infrared part of the spectrum. No evidence of a host galaxy was found either by Gemini North or by the Hubble Space Telescope.[1] Though this burst was detected in 2009, it was not until May 2011 that its distance estimate of 13.14 billion light-years was announced. With 90% likelihood, the burst had a photometric redshift greater than z = 9.06, which would make it the most distant GRB known, although the error bar on this estimate is large, providing a lower limit of z > 7.[1][2]
The amount of energy released in the burst was estimated at 3.5 × 1052 erg. For a comparison, the Sun's luminosity is 3.8 × 1033 erg/s.[citation needed]
