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Something in space is sending us brief, very bright bursts of blue light — and scientists may finally have a clue as to what they are.
The phenomenon, known as Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients, or LFBOT, comes in the form of short, bright flashes of light that fade away and leave others behind. x-ray and radio emissions. They have puzzled scientists for a decade, despite scientists having seen more than a dozen of them.
Possible explanations include everything from strange supernovae to interstellar gas black holeBut now scientists believe they have another explanation,
This comes as researchers look at a new example, which was found last year and is the brightest of its kind.
That new example suggests that LFBOTs are caused by “extreme tidal disturbance”. This happens when the massive black hole eats its companion star, tearing it into pieces.
According to the researchers behind it, as well as helping to explain the mysterious phenomenon, this research could help us better understand how black holes work and how stars evolve. For example, massive black holes have been observed in experiments, but scientists still don’t know how they actually form.
“Theorists have explored many ways to explain how we get these massive black holes, to explain what LIGO sees,” Raffaella Margutti, associate professor of astronomy and physics at UC Berkeley, said in a statement. “LFBOTs allow you to approach this question from a completely different angle.
“They also allow us to mark the exact location where these things are inside their host galaxy, which adds even more context in trying to understand how we end up with this setup – a huge black hole And a companion.”
The new work is described in two new papers – ‘The Most Luminous Known Fast Blue Optical Transient AT 2024wpp: Unexpected Evolution and Properties in the X-ray and Radio’ and ‘The Most Luminous Known Fast Blue Optical Transient AT 2024wpp: Unexpected Evolution and Properties in the Ultraviolet to the Near-Infrared’ – which are available online and Has been accepted for publication. The Astrophysical Journal Letters,