That flash you saw? Just a star blast

A gamma-ray burst bright enough to be seen by the naked eye occurred when a collapsing star ejected a jet almost directly at Earth, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Nature. Emissions reached Earth on March 19 from a star in the constellation Bootes about 7.5 billion light-years away. Astronomers said that, considering its distance from Earth, it was the brightest explosion ever observed.