Dearest CT64,
RA = Right Ascension - Dec = Declination. In the discipline of Astronomy, RA and Dec are used as a coordinate system. The numbers signify, in this case, the coordinates of a Gamma Ray Burster - the most powerful explosions in the known Universe. I have as a hobby the joy of placing and tracking the different GRB's which appear quite regularly. GRB's are mostly localised at the far reaches of the Universe and thankfully so. Were they e.g. at a distance of 4.5 Ly = lightyears(the star Proxima Centauri) from Earth and exploded, the Earth would be instantly vaporised.
Go to this web url to discover all the different GRB that have been detected by different observation systems:
http://grb.sonoma.edu/
You'll see the coordinates given in RA and Dec - Input the RA coordinate first and then a comma [,] immediately followed by the Dec coordinate. You must be in the "Google Sky" screen and inputting those coordinates in the upper left hand corner search field.
The GRB's can have 150 times the mass of our own Sun, so when they blow - Watch Out!!! The energy output of certain GRB's in explosion phase is thought to equal the total output of 1000 Suns in a 1000 year timeframe, all in the space of 100 seconds - quite staggering really. One of the latest GRB's detected was 7.5 billion lightyears distant from Earth yet it could be seen by the naked eye.
7.5 billion Ly!!!??? That distance is mind-bogglingly huge - so you can imagine that the GRB that produced that burster flash of light was exceedingly huge. One really important thing to remember is that we can only detect those GRB's when the polar axis of those objects are pointed towards Earth. Furthermore, it is thought that we maybe only detect one GRB out of one thousand that go off in any one time period.
So, you may ask why then my fascination? Well, my general assumption is that GRB's can imo be another way to gauge the distances to the edge of the Universe.
Sorry for my lengthy posting.......