The flattest explosion seen in the cosmos

Astronomers have observed an explosion 180 million light-years from Earth that challenges current scientific knowledge about natural explosions in space, as it has been much flatter than previously believed to be the maximum possible. .

The observation of the rare explosion and its analysis are the work of the team of Justyn Maund of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

Natural explosions in space are almost always spherical, since the stars themselves, the source of the vast majority of cosmic explosions detectable from Earth, are spherical, but the new explosion is amazingly flat: disk-shaped.

The observed explosion, the size of our solar system, was of the FBOT (Fast Blue Optical Transient) type. It is a much less common kind of explosion than other explosions, such as supernovae. Only four other FBOT-type explosions have been seen. The first bright FBOT was discovered in 2018. It is not yet known how these extremely rare bursts occur.

Very little is known about FBOT explosions: they just don’t behave like exploding stars should, they’re too bright, and they evolve too fast. “Simply put, they are weird, and this new observation makes them even weirder,” Maund sums up.

Artist’s impression of the rare disk-shaped explosion. (Image: Phil Drury, University of Sheffield)

One possible explanation for how this explosion occurred is that the star itself may have been surrounded by a dense disk of matter. Or maybe it’s a failed supernova.

The study is titled “A flash of polarized optical light points to an aspherical ‘cow’”. And it has been published in the academic journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)