As I have posted in the past, these blasts are converting material through an event horizon into photon complexes that escape at light speed but then decay into particles that then emit high energy photons. Photons are surprisingly sticky as the existence of coherent radiation shows us.
Such a model easily explains these observations and the fact that the bubble of activity happens to be light years across which would be impossible to create exiting a gravity well as matter.
It also supports the complex variation of the population of events.
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Mystery “space cow” is a weird new type of powerful space explosion
By Leah Crane
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2185186-mystery-space-cow-is-a-weird-new-type-of-powerful-space-explosion/
A SPACE explosion nicknamed “the Cow” keeps getting stranger. After months of observations, we still aren’t quite sure what it is but it may be part of a whole new class of blasts.
In June, astronomers spotted a remarkably fast and luminous explosion. It took just a few days to reach peak brightness, whereas most supernovae – which occur when stars blow up and die – take a few weeks or longer. And it was 10 to 100 times brighter than most normal supernovae.
Telescopes around the world were turned to face the blast, dubbed the Cow after it was officially listed as AT2018cow, simply because these cosmic events get three-letter labels in alphabetical order based on when they are seen. Initial observations couldn’t explain it, so lots of astronomers continued to watch.
Using 12 telescopes, Raffaella Margutti at Northwestern University in Illinois and her team examined the explosion in several wavelengths of light. None of those observations resembled a regular supernova, she says.
They found that high-energy X-rays from the Cow, which should die down as the blast goes on, were increasing. “That was a huge surprise,” says Margutti. They redid the analysis but the result was the same.
The visible light coming from the Cow added to the mystery too. “It was very blue, which means it was hot. And it stayed blue, which means something is keeping it hot,” says Brian Metzger at Columbia University in New York.
They also detected irregular X-ray frequencies, which suggest that the Cow is asymmetrical, and that it may also have a ring of dust and gas around it (arxiv.org/abs/1810.10720).
““It shares features with many things but doesn’t fit into one category. It’s really, totally strange””
Another group led by Anna Ho at the California Institute of Technology came to similar conclusions. They found that radio waves emitted by the Cow suggest the explosion is spreading through a dense medium, like the clouds of gas that some stars belch out before becoming supernovae (arxiv.org/abs/1810.10880).
“It has some features in common with many different types of things, but it doesn’t fit neatly into any one category,” says Ho. “It’s really, totally strange.”
Together, the two sets of observations paint a picture of a very powerful explosion, blasting through gas clouds and lent extra oomph by a central energy source, or “engine”. The whole thing is ringed with debris.
We may not know for a while how the Cow gets its power. It could be a rapidly spinning neutron star, a newborn black hole, or a delayed shock wave from a failed supernova. The problem is a lot of central energy sources look alike, says Metzger.
The Cow sits in a not too distant dwarf galaxy. We have seen other explosions that look similar, but they have always been so far away that we haven’t been able to study them in any detail. Observations of the Cow may mark the first time we are witnessing the finer features of a new type of space explosion.
“We’re entering this era now where the zoo of astronomical events has just gotten out of hand,” says Metzger. “This is a rare opportunity to examine the bestiary up close.”
This article appeared in print under the headline “Space explosion is too bright, too fast”
By Leah Crane
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2185186-mystery-space-cow-is-a-weird-new-type-of-powerful-space-explosion/
A SPACE explosion nicknamed “the Cow” keeps getting stranger. After months of observations, we still aren’t quite sure what it is but it may be part of a whole new class of blasts.
In June, astronomers spotted a remarkably fast and luminous explosion. It took just a few days to reach peak brightness, whereas most supernovae – which occur when stars blow up and die – take a few weeks or longer. And it was 10 to 100 times brighter than most normal supernovae.
Telescopes around the world were turned to face the blast, dubbed the Cow after it was officially listed as AT2018cow, simply because these cosmic events get three-letter labels in alphabetical order based on when they are seen. Initial observations couldn’t explain it, so lots of astronomers continued to watch.
Using 12 telescopes, Raffaella Margutti at Northwestern University in Illinois and her team examined the explosion in several wavelengths of light. None of those observations resembled a regular supernova, she says.
They found that high-energy X-rays from the Cow, which should die down as the blast goes on, were increasing. “That was a huge surprise,” says Margutti. They redid the analysis but the result was the same.
The visible light coming from the Cow added to the mystery too. “It was very blue, which means it was hot. And it stayed blue, which means something is keeping it hot,” says Brian Metzger at Columbia University in New York.
They also detected irregular X-ray frequencies, which suggest that the Cow is asymmetrical, and that it may also have a ring of dust and gas around it (arxiv.org/abs/1810.10720).
““It shares features with many things but doesn’t fit into one category. It’s really, totally strange””
Another group led by Anna Ho at the California Institute of Technology came to similar conclusions. They found that radio waves emitted by the Cow suggest the explosion is spreading through a dense medium, like the clouds of gas that some stars belch out before becoming supernovae (arxiv.org/abs/1810.10880).
“It has some features in common with many different types of things, but it doesn’t fit neatly into any one category,” says Ho. “It’s really, totally strange.”
Together, the two sets of observations paint a picture of a very powerful explosion, blasting through gas clouds and lent extra oomph by a central energy source, or “engine”. The whole thing is ringed with debris.
We may not know for a while how the Cow gets its power. It could be a rapidly spinning neutron star, a newborn black hole, or a delayed shock wave from a failed supernova. The problem is a lot of central energy sources look alike, says Metzger.
The Cow sits in a not too distant dwarf galaxy. We have seen other explosions that look similar, but they have always been so far away that we haven’t been able to study them in any detail. Observations of the Cow may mark the first time we are witnessing the finer features of a new type of space explosion.
“We’re entering this era now where the zoo of astronomical events has just gotten out of hand,” says Metzger. “This is a rare opportunity to examine the bestiary up close.”
This article appeared in print under the headline “Space explosion is too bright, too fast”
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