Astronomers have spotted high energy gamma rays generated by a faraway galaxy, according to NASA. The surprising thing about the powerful gamma rays is that they were emitted from the galaxy before the formation of earth.

When many high energy gamma rays slammed the earth’s atmosphere, large amount of light is produced. It is the first time when astronomers have spotted such powerful high energy light coming from a faraway galaxy. NASA believes the new observations may allow astronomers look into that distant galaxy, known as PKS 1441+25, and the black hole present in its center.

PKS 1441+25 is a rare kind of galaxy, known as blazer, which means it very bright and a supermassive black hole at its center is powering it. Blazers are capable of emitting flares more than 10 times brighter than their baseline light emissions.

A flood of same kind of gamma rays from PKS 1441+25 started to travel towards earth before the planet’s formation and arrived this year. NASA astronomers observed the powerful rays with the help of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS).

Jonathan Biteau, lead researcher from University of California, said, “With VERITAS, we detected gamma rays from this unusual object at the highest energies observed on Earth”.

According to astronomers, it was surprising to detect such powerful rays that travelled through halfway across the universe. They covered the universe for 7.6 billion years and it was unexpected as they could be annihilated in the journey.