Friday, November 17, 2023

Astronomers witness a dead star flare back to life

Bizarre flashes of light from a distant galaxy could help solve the mystery behind cosmic events called luminous, fast blue optical transients.

The universe is full of stupendously huge explosions. Gamma ray bursts in distant galaxies are literally an everyday sight, and supernovae are even more common as astronomers observe hundreds every year.

But one type of cosmic cataclysm is the rarest and most mysterious. These are sudden, intense burst of mostly bluish light (which flares even brighter than a supernova for just a few days before disappearing), and astronomers call them luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOT). Only seven have been spotted since 2018, and one of them recently did something very strange, even by LFBOT standards. After the original burst had faded, the LFBOT flared up again — not once but several times. READ MORE FROM INVERSE

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