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The universe is beautiful and freakin' terrifying
Brightest gamma-ray burst was aimed at Earth
The blast, dubbed GRB 080319B, came from 7.5 billion light years away, more than halfway across the universe. Despite the immense distance, it would have been visible with the naked eye at dark sites on Earth for 40 seconds.
Which is awe-inspiring, because the idea of being able to actually see something halfway across the universe, with your eyes, is absolutely incredible. Just the amount of energy that represents is staggering.
And it's terrifying, because we're being hit by gamma rays produced by a dying star halfway across the universe. If a relatively close star did that, the human race (and anything else looking up at the time) might be able to say, "Wow, that's bright..." just before becoming ash on a well-sterilized chunk of rock. Or maybe just a writhing mass of planet-wide tumor.
And maybe if it's only a quarter of the way across the universe, we'd become a planet of Hulks. And that just couldn't turn out well.
UPDATE:
The Bad Astronomer has a typically excellent post about the gamma-ray burst.