The optical afterglow was 2.5 million times more luminous than the most luminous supernova ever recorded, making it the most intrinsically bright object ever observed by humans in the universe. It was so bright that immediately after the blast, Swift's UltraViolet and Optical Telescope and X-Ray Telescope indicated they were effectively blinded ... the burst shattered the record for the farthest object that’s ever been visible to the naked eye.
The previous record was a spiral galaxy called M33, which is thousands of times closer than the March 19 explosion.
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