The Gemini Observatory on Mauna Kea has obtained the first color image of what astronomers say is the most distant object ever seen in the universe.

Gemini measured a gamma ray burst — a stellar explosion — about 13 billion light-years away, close to the estimated 13.7-billion-year age of the universe.

“;We're looking back to the time the universe was very, very young,”; said Gemini spokesman Peter Michaud. “;This is the furthest we ever looked back in time or distance in the universe.”;

“;We now have the first direct proof that the young universe was teeming with exploding stars and newly born black holes only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang,”; said Edo Berger, a Harvard University professor, in a Harvard-NASA news release.

The Swift satellite detected the gamma-burst at 10 p.m. Hawaii time on April 22, and within minutes it was observed at the Gemini Observatory. A number of other observatories, including the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea, also observed the afterglow within a few hours.

Michaud said Gemini has a unique program allowing astronomers to take advantage of a “;time dependent”; event such as a stellar explosion before it fades from view.

Harvard said other telescopes around the world focused on the gamma-ray burst, dubbed GRB 090423, to observe the afterglow after word spread about the distance.

A stellar explosion seen last September held the previous record, astronomers said. It was about 190 million light-years closer than GRB 090423.

Derek Fox of Penn State University said, “;The burst most likely arose from the explosion of a massive star. We're seeing the demise of a star — and probably the birth of a black hole — in one of the universe's earliest stellar generations.”;