Scientists have been puzzled by an explosion the size of our solar system
because of the form of the explosion, which is contrary to all we know about
explosions in space and resembles that of an incredibly flat disk.
Bright Fast Blue Optical Transients (FBOTs), a very uncommon class of
explosions that are significantly less frequent than other explosions like
supernovas, were the type of explosion that was witnessed. In 2018,
researchers found the first brilliant FBOT, which they dubbed "the
cow."
Since all stars in the cosmos have spherical shapes, stellar explosions
nearly invariably have spherical shapes as well. The shape of a disk emerged
a few days after the explosion was found, making it the largest spherical
explosion ever observed in space, even though it happened 180 million light
years distant. It's possible that the star's material shed right before
exploding contributed to this portion of the explosion.
It is believed that this finding, which was published in Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society, may help us better understand how bright
FBOT explosions happen.
"Very little is known about FBOT explosions—they just don't behave like
exploding stars should, they are too bright, and they evolve too quickly,"
said Dr. Justyn Maund, the study's lead author from the Department of
Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield. Simply said, they are
strange, and this latest discovery makes them more stranger.
We had no idea that explosions could be this spherical, so maybe this new
discovery will help us understand them a little better. The stars involved
may have formed a disk right before they perished, or these may be failed
supernovas, in which the star's core collapses into a blackhole or neutron
star, which subsequently consumes the remainder of the star.
It defies our notions of how stars may burst in the cosmos, and what we now
know for sure is that the degrees of asymmetry documented are a vital
component in understanding these mysterious explosions.
After entirely by chance observing a flash of polarized light, scientists
discovered the discovery. Using the astronomical equivalent of polaroid
sunglasses and the Liverpool Telescope, which is housed at Liverpool John
Moores University and is situated on the island of La Palma, they were able
to determine the polarization of the explosion.
They were able to determine the form of the explosion by analyzing the
polarization, basically seeing something the size of our solar system in a
galaxy 180 million light years distant. They were able to map the
explosion's boundaries and recreate the 3D geometry of the explosion using
the data, which revealed how flat it was.
The Liverpool Telescope's mirror is just 2.0 meters in diameter, but by
analyzing the polarization, scientists were able to recreate the explosion's
form as if the telescope were 750 kilometers in diameter.
In order to find additional FBOTs and learn more about them, researchers
will now launch a fresh study with the worldwide Vera Rubin Observatory in
Chile.
