[FPSPACE] "The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

[Alex Michael Bonnici]

Hello One and All,
                    This posting just came in from another forum hosted by yahoo devote to the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke:

See
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080321-distant-explosion.html

A powerful stellar explosion that has shattered the record for the 
most distant object visible to the naked eye was detected by NASA's 
Swift satellite on Wednesday.

The explosion, known as a gamma-ray burst, also ranks as the most
intrinsically bright object in the universe ever observed by humans.

"It's amazing — we've been waiting for a flash this bright from a 
gamma-ray burst ever since Swift began observing the sky three years 
ago, and now we've got one that is so bright that it was visible to 
the naked eye even though its source is half-way across the 
universe," said David Burrows of Penn State University, who directs 
the continuing operation of Swift's X-ray telescope and the analysis 
of the data it collects.

The burst was detected by Swift at 2:12 EDT on March 19 and was 
one of five gamma-ray bursts detected that day, the same day that 
famed science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke died.

"Coincidentally, the passing of Arthur C. Clarke seems to have set 
the universe ablaze with gamma-ray bursts," said Swift science team 
member Judith Racusin, a Penn State graduate student.
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When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."