Why Not the “Clarke Event”?
While most of us slept on the morning of March 19, hours before the death of famed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke was announced, a shot rang out in the Universe the likes of which are unknown in human history. By a preliminary analysis, this object was visible to the unaided human eye in the constellation Bootes, and at an estimated 7.5 billion light years, it was the farthest object ever observable by the human eye in all of recorded history. In addition, it was 2.5 million times more luminous than the most luminous supernova ever recorded, making this event, according to a NASA news release, “the most intrinsically bright object ever observed by humans in the universe.”
