Biggest bang: Nasa spots 7.5 billion-year-old explosion

NASA has detected the brightest cosmic explosion recorded — a massive burst of energy 7.5 billion light years away that could be seen with the naked eye from Earth, the US space agency said.

The explosion, a gamma ray burst older than Earth itself, was monitored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Swift satellite and shattered the record for the most distant object seen without visual aid.

“No other known object or type of explosion could be seen by the naked eye at such an immense distance,” said Swift team member Stephen Holland of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.