The heavens themselves salute him

So friggin' awesome. via Adam in comments:

A powerful stellar explosion that has shattered the record for the most distant object visible to the naked eye was detected by NASA's Swift satellite on Wednesday.

The explosion, known as a gamma-ray burst, also ranks as the most intrinsically bright object in the universe ever observed by humans....

The burst was detected by Swift at 2:12 EDT on March 19 and was one of five gamma-ray bursts detected that day, the same day that famed science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke died.

"Coincidentally, the passing of Arthur C. Clarke seems to have set the universe ablaze with gamma-ray bursts," said Swift science team member Judith Racusin, a Penn State graduate student.

Yeah, "coincidentally". The monolith-builders are bringing him home.