University of Sheffield | 2023 Mar 31
Astronomers have observed an explosion 180 million light years away which challenges our current understanding of explosions in space, that appeared much flatter than ever thought possible.
An explosion the size of our solar system has baffled scientists, as part of its shape - similar to that of an extremely flat disc - challenges everything we know about explosions in space.
The explosion observed was a bright Fast Blue Optical Transient (FBOT) - an extremely rare class of explosion which is much less common than other explosions, such as supernovas. The first bright FBOT was discovered in 2018 and given the nickname “the cow”.
Explosions of stars in the universe are almost always spherical in shape, as the stars themselves are spherical. However, this explosion, which occurred 180 million light years away, is the most aspherical ever seen in space, with a shape like a disc emerging a few days after it was discovered. This section of the explosion may have come from material shed by the star just before it exploded. ...
A flash of polarized optical light points to an aspherical "cow" ~ Justyn R Maund et al
- Monthly Notices of the RAS 521(3):3323 (May 2023) DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad539
- arXiv > astro-ph > arXiv:2303.00787 > 01 Mar 2023
and implications for its progenitor and late-time brightness ~ Ning-Chen Sun et al
- Monthly Notices of the RAS 519(3):3323 (Mar 2023) DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac3773
- arXiv > astro-ph > arXiv:2210.01144 > 03 Oct 2022 (v1), 19 Dec 2022 (v2)
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