Scientists watch the flattest explosion ever seen in the universe

A burst The size of our solar system has baffled scientists as part of its extremely flat, disc-like shape defies all that is known about these events.

burst a bright blue optical transient was observed (FBOT), Class burst extremely rare, much less common than other explosions such as supernovae. First FBOT The diamond was discovered in 2018 and was nicknamed “cow”.

Star explosions in the universe are almost always spherical because the stars themselves are spherical. However, this explosion, which occurred at a distance of 180 million light-years, is the most aspherical ever observed in space: within a few days of its discovery, a disc-shaped form arose. This part of the explosion could have come from material erupted by the star just before the explosion.

It is not yet clear how bright the explosions will be. FBOTbut there is hope that this observation, published in Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Noticesbrings us closer to their understanding.

unique event

Dr Justin Mound, lead author of the study from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield, said in a statement: “Very little is known about the explosions. FBOT; they just don’t behave like stars should in burst, they are too bright and develop too quickly. Simply put, they are rare, and this new observation makes them even rarer.”

“Hopefully this new discovery will help us shed a little more light on them, we never thought explosions could be so aspherical. There are several possible explanations for this: the stars involved may have created a disk just before they died, or they may have been a failed supernova where the star’s core collapses into a black hole or neutron star, which then consumes the rest of the star.”

“Now we know for sure that the recorded levels of asymmetry are a key part of understanding these mysterious explosions, and they challenge our preconceived ideas about how stars in the universe might explode.”

Scientists made this discovery after accidentally detecting a flash of polarized light. They were able to measure the polarization burstusing the astronomical equivalent of polarized sunglasses, with the Liverpool Telescope (owned by Liverpool John Moores University) located on La Palma.

Measuring polarization allowed them to measure the shape burst, actually seeing something the size of our solar system but in a galaxy 180 million light-years away. They were then able to use the data to reconstruct the 3D shape of the explosion and were able to map the edges of the explosion, allowing them to see how flat it was.

The Liverpool Telescope’s mirror is only 2 meters in diameter, but by studying polarization, astronomers have been able to reconstruct the shape of the mirror. burst as if the telescope had a diameter of about 750 km.

The researchers will now conduct a new survey with the Vera Rubin International Observatory in Chile that we hope will help reveal more. FBOT and understand them better. (Europe Press)

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