A possible bright ultraviolet flash from a galaxy at redshift z ~ 11

Understand

In the optical sky, minutes-duration transients from cosmological distances are rare.

• Known objects that give rise to such transients include gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most luminous explosions in the universe that have been detected at redshift as high as z ~ 9.4.
• These high-redshift GRBs and their associated emission can be used to probe the star formation and reionization history in the era of cosmic dawn.
• Here we report a near-infrared transient with an observed duration shorter than 245 s coincident with the luminous star-forming galaxy GN-z11 at z ~ 11.