Have you ever heard of mysterious blue bursts of light happening in empty space? Scientists have been spotting these strange bursts, and they still aren’t entirely sure what's causing them. They are super powerful but don’t seem to be connected to any stars or galaxies we know about. Some experts think it could be a new kind of cosmic event that we’ve never seen before. They’re still investigating, but these blue flashes are definitely keeping space enthusiasts on the edge of their seats. It’s like the universe is throwing a surprise party, and we’re still figuring out the guest list!
00:00Strange explosions in vibrant blue colors are popping up around the universe and keeping astronomers intrigued.
00:07This rare and incredibly powerful event has a fancy name.
00:12Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient.
00:15This phenomenon doesn't behave like anything else we know of.
00:19And things got even stranger when the most recent one happened in a spot it shouldn't have.
00:25To really understand what happened last year, we need to go back a bit.
00:30This type of strange explosion was spotted first in June 2018.
00:35The blue blast happened about 200 million light-years from Earth and got the nickname the cow.
00:42No, this happening didn't resemble a cow at all, but it did have an unusual format.
00:48Back then, this blast was the most asymmetrical explosion ever seen by astronomers.
00:54It burst into space in a flattened, pancake-like shape.
00:58Not in a typical sphere, as they would expect.
01:02This phenomenon was similar to a supernova, which is the most common type of cosmic explosion that happens when a star exhausts its nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity.
01:14However, scientists also noted three crucial differences.
01:17Number one, this phenomenon is more powerful than a typical supernova.
01:23When it happens, the blue burst emits more energy than an entire galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars like the Sun.
01:31Number two, it's much faster.
01:33The explosion reaches its peak brightness and fades away within a matter of days, while a supernova can take weeks or even months to completely dissipate.
01:44And the last difference, these blue bursts can also be much, much brighter.
01:48These mysterious objects are considered the brightest known optical phenomenon in the universe.
01:55But unlike a regular supernova, it's believed that there are no radioactive elements to power this brightness.
02:02So that means the power must come from somewhere else.
02:06The question is, from where?
02:08This is just one of the mysteries that the scientists are trying to figure out.
02:13There have been some heavy investigations since the event was first observed, and 15 telescopes around the world are constantly looking for it.
02:22Since 2018, these extreme explosions have been spotted about once a year.
02:28So, while they're rare, they're not incredibly uncommon.
02:31There are several possible explanations for the existence of these fast optical transients.
02:38Perhaps the most acceptable one is that it is a stellar corpse.
02:43I mean, what is left behind when a star calls it quits.
02:47So, we're looking at two prime suspects here.
02:49They could be a neutron star or a black hole, producing emissions close to the speed of light.
02:56The theory goes like this.
02:58There is a massive star, much larger than those that produce regular supernovas.
03:03Then, it starts to collapse.
03:06Such an event would certainly be expected to leave a black hole behind.
03:10Let's say this massive star isn't ready to leave the universe in a quiet way.
03:16Instead, it creates a swirling disk around the black hole, composed of gas, dust, and other matter.
03:23Like it matters.
03:23This disk, called the accretion disk, can shoot out streams of material at incredibly high speeds.
03:31Almost like powerful cosmic jets.
03:33And that could be exactly what we see as those sudden bursts of light.
03:38Again, it's just a theory.
03:40What exactly sets off these blasts remains a mystery.
03:44And much more observation and analysis are needed.
03:47Experts believe that explaining such an oddity is a scientific gold mod.
03:51After all, we're talking about a stellar corpse that isn't just sitting there.
03:57It's actually quite active.
03:59Now, since this event was first spotted, all similar occurrences that our telescopes have captured happen in the same place.
04:07I mean, the explosions always occurred in the spiral arms of different galaxies.
04:12But last year, things changed.
04:14The Hubble Space Telescope left scientists speechless in April 2023, when its images caught this same type of weird explosion happening for the first time in the middle of nowhere.
04:28Well, it didn't happen inside a galaxy, as it was supposed to.
04:32It happened in the space between two of them.
04:34More precisely, about 50,000 light-years from a large spiral galaxy and about 15,000 light-years from a small one.
04:43This event is known today as the Finch.
04:47Oh, great.
04:48So, when we finally get closer to finding some answers, the unusual location of the Finch phenomenon came to mess it up again.
04:56So, maybe there is another explanation for it.
05:01Speculation began soon after the discovery.
05:03One idea is that it could have been a collision between two neutron stars traveling far outside their host galaxies.
05:12These two could have been spiraling toward each other for billions of years.
05:16And when they collided, they produced a flare over 100 times brighter than a normal supernova.
05:22For this hypothesis to be correct, one of these neutron stars would have to be highly magnetized, amplifying the explosion.
05:30Another possibility is that the explosion was a star being torn apart by a black hole with a mass between 100 and 1,000 times that of the sun.
05:42Although we still have lots of questions, one thing is for sure.
05:47The Finch is a luminous, fast-black optical transient.
05:51Except for the weird location where it happened, it has all the other characteristics to be classified as one.
05:58It's super bright, like me, and super fast.
06:01And its origin is super hard to explain.
06:04Plus, the data from the Gemini South Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Telescope, and the Very Large Array Radio Telescope have confirmed it.
06:14Adding this latest information only makes it harder and harder for researchers to finally find some kind of pattern in this whole event.
06:23The Finch isn't the only peculiar event in this category.
06:26Let's head back to the year before, to 2022.
06:30A blue explosion was spotted in September, and it got the nickname of Tasmanian Devil.
06:36Just like the previous ones, this blue burst came up and disappeared very quickly.
06:42Then, something mysterious happened.
06:45Exactly 100 days later, observers who were still tracking the phenomenon got an early Christmas gift.
06:52They observed another flare-up, and it was as bright and fascinating as the original one.
06:58Wait, so, we're talking about two similar and strange explosions that happened at the same spot and close in time?
07:06Well, this was a first.
07:08Quickly, 13 telescopes around the globe all had eyes turned toward the Tasmanian Devil event,
07:15including when equipped with a high-speed camera.
07:18Over the course of 120 days, they managed to capture another 14 irregular light pulses.
07:26This was certainly amazing, because it proved that, instead of showing up once and fading away as expected,
07:32the Tasmanian Devil continued to explode with supernova-like energies again and again and again.
07:39Can you imagine such power?
07:42This scenario still intrigues the scientific community, because it pushes the limits of physics.
07:48Not only because of such extreme energy production, but also because of the short duration bursts.
07:55By the way, its flares last from 10 minutes to about 4 hours.
07:59Believe me, on the scale of the universe, that's considered super, super quick.
08:04This was the only time that an extended season of this event was observed.
08:11However, after some thought, the scientific community split their opinions about it.
08:16On one hand, the Tasmanian Devil could have been an utterly unique and one-of-a-kind event.
08:22On the other hand, maybe it was just the first time that our telescopes caught it from a more face-on angle.
08:29To further understand what's happening, scientists still need to observe larger samples of the phenomenon.
08:36All hopes are in the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is currently being constructed in Chile.
08:43It will have a 27.5-foot-wide telescope, coupled with the world's largest digital camera ever fabricated for this purpose.
08:52According to NASA, this technology might finally give us some answers about these blue explosions.
08:59We can expect some exciting times ahead, as this could be the start of a new chapter in our understanding of stellar evolution.
Be the first to comment