If you’re feeling old, perhaps this piece will give you a little historical perspective!

When Edo Berger received a message early last Thursday morning when a satellite detected a 10-second blast of energy known as a gamma ray burst coming from outer space.

This exploding star (above) was up to 100 times larger than our own sun.

Telescopes worldwide focused on the explosion, soon picking up infrared radiation, which is produced after gamma rays in this kind of event. Berger was ready to view the visible light, which should have followed.

It never arrived.

“We were kind of blown away. We immediately knew what that meant,” Berger said.

What it meant was that he was looking at the oldest thing ever spotted -  an enormous star exploding 13 billion years ago.

“At that point, the age of the universe was only 600 million years,” he said. In other words, Berger said, he was looking “95 percent of the way back to the beginning of time.”

The star which exploded was 30 to 100 times larger than our own sun, and when it died, it gave off “about million times the amount of energy the sun will release in its entire lifetime,” Berger told CNN by phone from Harvard University, where he is an assistant professor of astronomy.

Its death throes produced so much energy that “momentarily, we can essentially see it anywhere in the universe,” Berger said.

“We learn that already massive stars were around 600 million years after the universe formed,” Berger said. “We suspected that, but now we have proof. Now that we know these objects are so bright, in the next few years we should be able to pinpoint exactly at what stage in the evolution of the universe stars and galaxies formed.”

The gamma radiation from GRB 090423, which took 13 billion years to reach earth, was detected by a NASA satellite called Swift. The infrared radiation was detected by the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.

So go ahead. Make a wish on an extremely powerful star. While it has dissipated in space, it’s memorialized here today. Take a good look at the photo above and send your desires to the oldest star ever!

Source: CNN