NASA astronomers were amazed early Wednesday morning when they saw an incredible explosion detected by the satellite Swift. Even though the event took place from halfway across the visible universe, its afterglow was visible to the naked eye.

According to the astronomers, the explosion took place even before the Earth was formed and the light it created took 7.5 billion years to reach our planet. Swift science team member Stephen Holland had this to say:

We don’t know yet if anyone was looking at the afterglow at the time it brightened to peak visibility. But if someone just happened to be looking at the right place at the right time, they saw the most distant object ever seen by human eyes without optical aid.

To be more technical, the explosion is referred to as gamma ray burst. For those not so familiar with these things, a gamma ray is a type of light with energy far higher than the light we see with our naked eyes.

Furthermore, the scientists believe that the explosion came from a star that died since known gamma ray bursts come from those phenomena. Instead of blowing up in all directions, an incredible amount of energy is channeled into two high-speed jets.

"Even by the standards of gamma-ray bursts, this burst was a whopper. It blows away every gamma ray burst we’ve seen so far," added Swift lead scientist Neil Gehrels of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.