Astronomers have discovered a new type of explosions in space

Do you know what often happens in space? Explosions. A lot of explosions. As a rule, all these brightest events - within the visible Universe, of course - were studied by astronomers. So, one of the most beautiful and vital space events is supernova explosions, which mark the death of massive stars and the birth of new space objects - neutron stars and black holes. But recently, researchers are faced with a new type of space explosion, which has something in common with supernova explosions, and with explosions that generate gamma-ray bursts. But what does this mean?

The illustration shows the flow of material from a star when it is absorbed by a supermassive black hole.

Gamma-ray bursts or gamma-ray bursts are short bursts of the most energetic form of light in the Universe.

The most powerful explosion in the universe

Scientists from Northwestern University (USA)discovered a new type of cosmic phenomena related to objects or phenomena that change their brightness and during which a large amount of energy is released. The anomaly relates to FBOTs (fast blue optical transient) - blue optical transients. To date, only three of these phenomena are known. In simple words, this is a powerful explosion, visible in optical, x-ray and radio beams.

According to astronomers in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, the object that generated the most powerful explosion in the Universe is 500 million light-years from Earth.

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In 2018, scientists observed a bright explosion ina small galaxy located 195.7 million light-years from Earth and found that outgoing blue light is the result of FBOTs, a new form of explosion in the Universe whose growth rate was estimated at 42 thousand kilometers per second. Unlike traditional star explosions, the newThe AT2018COW blast, also called “Cow”, had an unusual brightness that quickly intensified and disappeared in just three days. According to one hypothesis, the Cow was a kind of supernova, but the exact nature of this phenomenon remained unknown.

Perhaps the reason for the new kind of explosion in the universe is the absorption of a star by a black hole

In addition to Cows in space, two more were discoveredunknown explosion. The first of these, known as CSS161010, originated from a galaxy located about 500 million light-years from Earth. Another explosion, known as ZTF18abvkwla or Koala, was discovered at a distance of about 3.4 billion light-years from our planet. Like Cow, CSS161010 and Koala showed strange characteristics - the explosion was very bright and disappeared after a few days.

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Due to the strange nature of these explosions, astronomersconducted subsequent observations using various telescopes and observatories. The results showed that Koala’s brightness is similar to a gamma-ray burst - the most energetic form of light in space. CSS161010, on the other hand, threw an unexpected amount of matter into interstellar space at a speed exceeding half the speed of light. These unique characteristics have prompted researchers to call them Fast Blue Optical Transients (FBOTs). You will be interested: Gamma-ray bursts could destroy extraterrestrial life

Why are new explosions hard to detect?

It is believed that everything begins when a star, more massive than the Sun, collapses under the weight of its own gravity and explodes, reaching the end of its life cycle.

Crab Nebula - Remains of a Supernova Explosion

The explosion sends stellar material into histhe surroundings that sometimes form a rotating disk around the remnant of a supernova or the resulting black hole. A spinning disk or accretion disk, can throw powerful jets of matter into interstellar space. These jets often cause powerful gamma-ray bursts.

While FBOTs were rarer andinaccessible than some of us had hoped, in the radio range they are also much more luminous than expected, which allows us to obtain fairly complete data even on such events far from our planet.

Astronomer Daniel Perley from John Moore University of Liverpool.

As the researchers found during the studyFBOTs, they are quite difficult to detect because of their ability to be fast and disappear as instantly as they appeared. Despite the fact that although the traces of new cosmic explosions disappeared before scientists could figure out what caused the explosion, experts believe that it is all about the presence of a black hole or a neutron star inside the galaxy. The fact is that the detection mechanism of CSS161010 was considered the main mechanism of FBOTs as a collapse of a massive star with a gamma-ray burst or fusion of neutron stars. But now researchers believe that the reason for such a rare event is the absorption of a star by a black hole.