A mysterious cataclysm in a nearby galaxy was seen in the sky above Hawaii last week, causing astronomers around the world to struggle to understand the origin of an incredibly bright flash.
"I've never seen anything like this before in the local universe," said Stephen Smartt, an astrophysicist at Queen's University in Hawaii. The June 16 detection was first published in Astronomer's Telegram, an online service for astronomers to quickly report new interesting observations.
The object was nicknamed AT2018cow, or “cow”, for short. It immediately stood out for Smartt, because it was so different from a standard explosive star. Most of these events take several weeks to peak, but in just three days, the object has become about ten times brighter than a normal supernova.
The object quickly captured the attention of other astronomers. The following week, the ATLAS observation was followed by about two dozen teams of astronomers using telescopes on at least four continents and in space.
These subsequent observations only added mystery to the object. It was extraordinarily bright in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum - from X-rays to radio waves.
These are just the first stages of the scientific process. AT2018's observations still require months of additional research and analysis before they can be formally published. But this is a fun chance to watch astronomers get excited about something strange and potentially new. [ ScienceAlert ]