C’is a phenomenon that scientists do not yet manage to explain. A spatial explosion of a particular nature was observed in 2018, at 200 million light years, reports the BBC, this Sunday, May 4. This crash has gained in light intensity at full speed, much more than what we could expect for a classic star explosion – a supernova – before disappearing. Named AT2018Cow, this amazing explosion – which was roughly the same size as our solar system – was quickly nicknamed “the cow”.
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Since then, astronomers have detected a handful of other similar events. They are described as “fast blue optical transients” (LFBOTS). The letter L refers to their brightness while their blue color results from the extraordinarily high temperature of the explosion, of around 40,000 degrees Celsius. The o and the t of the acronym, themselves, refer to the fact that these events appear in the spectrum of visible light (optics) and that they are short (transient).
-A crucial index on dark matter
Scientists first thought that the LFBots were stars that would have tried to explode before imploding, forming a black hole in their hearts, which would then have consumed them from the inside. But another theory is gradually gaining ground: these eruptions could occur when an unknown class of medium -sized black holes, or black holes of intermediate mass, swallows the stars that approach it too much.
Read too Elon Musk and Mars: the specter of the flight forwardIf this theory turns out to be exact, this would provide essential proof of the existence of this kind of black hole, a missing link between the smallest and the largest black hole in the universe. Because if astronomers are reasonably convinced of the existence of these objects, no one has yet provided definitive proof. It would also be a crucial index to partly explain the origin of one of the greatest mysteries in the universe, dark matter, which would constitute more than 80 % of the mass of the universe.
A phenomenon still very rare
To discover
The kangaroo of the day
Answer
Daniel Perley, astronomer at John-Morals University in Liverpool, nevertheless explains to the BBC that to determine with certainty what these “fast blue optical transients” are, a much wider sample is necessary. Data from a hundred of them would be ideal. “Unfortunately, they are very rare,” said the scientist.
However, it would be possible to get closer to this figure next year thanks to the launch of an Israeli orbital telescope, the ultraviolet transient astronomy satellite, which should be able to detect other LFBots thanks to its very large field of vision. While waiting for these new data, the mystery persists around these amazing space explosions.
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