The new image, which scientists revealed on Wednesday (Jan. 9), was obtained on the night of Dec. 28 using a new adaptive optics system at the Gemini Observatory South telescope in Chile.

MSN: Cosmic 'bullets' slam Orion nebula in dazzling photo

Thanks to observations made with the Gemini ground-based optical telescope in Hawaii, it quickly became clear that GRB130427A was superbright primarily because it lay only a few billion light years away.

CNN: Why gamma-ray burst shocked scientists