Heba Al-Sayed wrote Monday, October 09, 2023 11:00 PM
The Hubble Space Telescope recently discovered an extremely bright and fast flash of light that appeared in an unknown location in space, technically known as Fast Blue Light Optical Transient (LFBOT). The strange thing about this rare event is that it happened outside the galaxy, according to Digitartlends.
These flashes have only been observed a few times since their discovery in 2018, and this particular event was named The Finch. Meanwhile, Hubble was used to track the point of origin of the flash, which was located between two galaxies, 50,000 light-years away from the galaxy. A larger spiral and about 15,000 light-years from a smaller galaxy.
This has puzzled astronomers, as these events were thought to originate from within galaxies where stars are forming, but this event occurred far from any star-forming region.
These flashes have only been observed a few times since their discovery in 2018, and this particular event was named The Finch. Hubble was used to track the point of origin of the flash, which was located between two galaxies, 50,000 light-years away from a larger spiral galaxy and about 15,000 light-years from a smaller galaxy.
This has puzzled astronomers, as these events were thought to originate from within galaxies where stars are forming, but this event occurred far from any star-forming region.
“The Hubble observations were the crucial thing. They made us realize that this was unusual compared to other similar things, because without the Hubble data we wouldn’t have known,” lead researcher Ashley Krems said in a statement.
The flash was also observed using other instruments such as the Gemini South Earth Observatory, which found that Finch’s temperature was an incredible 20,000 degrees Celsius (about 36,000 Fahrenheit).
These flashes brighten and dim within a few days, compared to other short astronomical events such as supernovae that tend to brighten and dim over months.
Scientists thought that LFBOTs might be created by a specific, rare type of supernova that happens to very large, short-lived stars. Since these stars don’t last long, they tend to be located near the stellar nurseries where they were born. But this new flash challenges… This concept.
“The more we learn about LFBOTs, the more they surprise us,” Krems says. “We have now shown that LFBOTs can occur at a long distance from the center of the nearest galaxy, and the Finch location is not what we would expect for any type of supernova.”
It is possible that the flashes are not actually caused by supernovas, but rather by stars being torn apart by black holes. Or it could be that there was a fast-moving star that was passing between the two galaxies and exploded during its journey. Because the events are so rare, they are difficult to identify at this stage of research.
“This discovery raises many more questions than it answers,” Krems said. “More work is needed to find out which of the several possible explanations is correct.”
