Fast blue optical transient Astronomical observation
Illustration of a FBOT
In astronomy, a fast blue optical transient (FBOT ), or more specifically, luminous fast blue optical transient (LFBOT ), is an explosive transient event similar to supernovae and gamma-ray bursts with high optical luminosity, rapid evolution, and predominantly blue emission.[ 1] The origins of such explosions are currently unclear, with events occurring at not more than 0.1% of the typical core-collapse supernova rate.[ 2] This class of transients initially emerged from large sky surveys at cosmological distances,[ 3] [ 4] yet in recent years a small number have been discovered in the local Universe, most notably AT 2018cow .
The precise definition of what constitutes a 'fast blue optical transient' is currently contentious in the literature, largely defined by the observational properties rather than the underlying mechanisms/objects. Even within the class, growing samples of candidates[ 5] are beginning to reveal significant variation in properties when the objects are studied in greater detail, potentially indicative of different progenitor channels or explosion mechanisms.
List
See also
References
^ O"Callaghan, Jonathan (19 July 2023). "A Cow, a Camel and a Finch Exploded in Space. What Is Going On? - Astronomers have yet to determine the cause of luminous fast blue optical transients, and the latest they have detected is raising even more questions" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023 .
^ a b Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Perley, Daniel A.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Dong, Dillon Z. J.; De, Kishalay; Chandra, Poonam; Andreoni, Igor; Bellm, Eric C.; Burdge, Kevin B.; Coughlin, Michael; Dekany, Richard (26 May 2020). "The Koala: A Fast Blue Optical Transient with Luminous Radio Emission from a Starburst Dwarf Galaxy atz= 0.27" . The Astrophysical Journal . 895 (1): 49. arXiv :2003.01222 . Bibcode :2020ApJ...895...49H . doi :10.3847/1538-4357/ab8bcf . ISSN 1538-4357 . S2CID 211817823 .
^ Drout, M. R.; Chornock, R.; Soderberg, A. M.; Sanders, N. E.; McKinnon, R.; Rest, A.; Foley, R. J.; Milisavljevic, D.; Margutti, R.; Berger, E.; Calkins, M.; Fong, W.; Gezari, S.; Huber, M. E.; Kankare, E. (19 September 2014). "Rapidly-Evolving and Luminous Transients from Pan-STARRS1". The Astrophysical Journal . 794 (1): 23. arXiv :1405.3668 . Bibcode :2014ApJ...794...23D . doi :10.1088/0004-637X/794/1/23 . ISSN 1538-4357 .
^ Pursiainen, M.; Childress, M.; Smith, M.; Prajs, S.; Sullivan, M.; Davis, T. M.; Foley, R. J.; Asorey, J.; Calcino, J.; Carollo, D.; Curtin, C.; D'Andrea, C. B.; Glazebrook, K.; Gutierrez, C.; Hinton, S. R. (21 November 2018). "Rapidly evolving transients in the Dark Energy Survey" . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . 481 (1): 894– 917. arXiv :1803.04869 . doi :10.1093/mnras/sty2309 . ISSN 0035-8711 .
^ Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Perley, Daniel A.; Gal-Yam, Avishay; Lunnan, Ragnhild; Sollerman, Jesper; Schulze, Steve; Das, Kaustav K.; Dobie, Dougal; Yao, Yuhan; Fremling, Christoffer; Adams, Scott; Anand, Shreya; Andreoni, Igor; Bellm, Eric C.; Bruch, Rachel J. (1 June 2023). "A Search for Extragalactic Fast Blue Optical Transients in ZTF and the Rate of AT2018cow-like Transients" . The Astrophysical Journal . 949 (2): 120. arXiv :2105.08811 . Bibcode :2023ApJ...949..120H . doi :10.3847/1538-4357/acc533 . ISSN 0004-637X .
^ Smartt, S. J.; et al. (17 June 2018). "ATLAS18qqn (AT2018cow) - a bright transient spatially coincident with CGCG 137-068 (60 Mpc)" . The Astronomer's Telegram . 11727 (11727): 1. Bibcode :2018ATel11727....1S . Retrieved 22 June 2018 .
^ a b c Prentice, S. J.; Maguire, K.; Smartt, S. J.; Magee, M. R.; Schady, P. ; Sim, S.; Chen, T.-W.; Clark, P.; Colin, C.; Fulton, M.; McBrien, O. (17 September 2018). "The Cow: Discovery of a Luminous, Hot, and Rapidly Evolving Transient" . The Astrophysical Journal . 865 (1): L3. arXiv :1807.05965 . Bibcode :2018ApJ...865L...3P . doi :10.3847/2041-8213/aadd90 . ISSN 2041-8213 . S2CID 54703801 .
^ Castelvecchi, Davide (2 November 2018). "Holy Cow! Astronomers agog at mysterious new supernova" . Nature . 563 (7730): 168– 169. Bibcode :2018Natur.563..168C . doi :10.1038/d41586-018-07260-w . PMID 30401847 . S2CID 53233136 .
^ "A Fast, Blue "Koala" Shines Bright in a Distant Galaxy" . 15 May 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2022 .
^ a b Coppejans, D. L.; Margutti, R.; Terreran, G.; Nayana, A. J.; Coughlin, E. R.; Laskar, T.; Alexander, K. D.; Bietenholz, M.; Caprioli, D.; Chandra, P.; Drout, M. R. (26 May 2020). "A Mildly Relativistic Outflow from the Energetic, Fast-rising Blue Optical Transient CSS161010 in a Dwarf Galaxy" . The Astrophysical Journal . 895 (1): L23. arXiv :2003.10503 . Bibcode :2020ApJ...895L..23C . doi :10.3847/2041-8213/ab8cc7 . ISSN 2041-8213 . S2CID 214623364 .
^ "Astrophysicists capture new class of transient objects" . news.northwestern.edu . Retrieved 15 January 2022 .
^ Perley, Daniel A; Ho, Anna Y Q; Yao, Yuhan; Fremling, Christoffer; Anderson, Joseph P; Schulze, Steve; Kumar, Harsh; Anupama, G C; Barway, Sudhanshu; Bellm, Eric C; Bhalerao, Varun (27 October 2021). "Real-time discovery of AT2020xnd: a fast, luminous ultraviolet transient with minimal radioactive ejecta" . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . 508 (4): 5138– 5147. arXiv :2103.01968 . doi :10.1093/mnras/stab2785 . ISSN 0035-8711 .
^ O'Callaghan, Jonathan (10 March 2021). "New Kind of Space Explosion Reveals the Birth of a Black Hole" . Quanta Magazine . Retrieved 16 January 2022 .
^ a b Yao, Yuhan; Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Medvedev, Pavel; A. J., Nayana; Perley, Daniel A.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Chandra, Poonam; Sazonov, Sergey; Gilfanov, Marat; Khorunzhev, Georgii; Khatami, David K.; Sunyaev, Rashid (1 August 2022). "The X-Ray and Radio Loud Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2020mrf: Implications for an Emerging Class of Engine-driven Massive Star Explosions" . The Astrophysical Journal . 934 (2): 104. arXiv :2112.00751 . Bibcode :2022ApJ...934..104Y . doi :10.3847/1538-4357/ac7a41 . ISSN 0004-637X . S2CID 244798769 .
^ "Astronomers Find Most Luminous "Cow" to Shine in X-Rays" . California Institute of Technology . 10 January 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2022 .
^ Matthews, D.; Margutti, R.; Metzger, B. D.; Milisavljevic, D.; Migliori, G.; Laskar, T.; Brethauer, D.; Berger, E.; Chornock, R.; Drout, M.; Ramirez-Ruiz, E. (19 June 2023). "Unprecedented X-Ray Emission from the Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2022tsd" . Research Notes of the AAS . 7 (6): 126. arXiv :2306.01114 . Bibcode :2023RNAAS...7..126M . doi :10.3847/2515-5172/acdde1 . ISSN 2515-5172 .
^ a b O’Callaghan, Jonathan (19 July 2023). "A Cow, a Camel and a Finch Exploded in Space. What Is Going On?" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 30 August 2023 .
^ Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Perley, Daniel A.; Chen, Ping; Schulze, Steve; Dhillon, Vik; Kumar, Harsh; Suresh, Aswin; Swain, Vishwajeet; Bremer, Michael; Smartt, Stephen J.; Anderson, Joseph P.; Anupama, G. C.; Awiphan, Supachai; Barway, Sudhanshu; Bellm, Eric C. (15 November 2023). "Minutes-duration optical flares with supernova luminosities" . Nature . 623 (7989): 927– 931. arXiv :2311.10195 . Bibcode :2023Natur.623..927H . doi :10.1038/s41586-023-06673-6 . ISSN 0028-0836 . PMID 37968403 .
^ O'Callaghan, Jonathan (15 November 2023). "Mysterious 'Tasmanian devil' space explosion baffles astronomers" . Nature . 623 (7989): 900. Bibcode :2023Natur.623..900O . doi :10.1038/d41586-023-03569-3 . ISSN 0028-0836 . PMID 37968468 .
^ Chrimes, A. A.; Jonker, P. G.; Levan, A. J.; Coppejans, D. L.; Gaspari, N.; Gompertz, B. P.; Groot, P. J.; Malesani, D. B.; Mummery, A.; Stanway, E. R.; Wiersema, K. (2024). "AT 2023fhn (the Finch): a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient at a large offset from its host galaxy" . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . 527 (1): L47 – L53 . arXiv :2307.01771 . Bibcode :2024MNRAS.527L..47C . doi :10.1093/mnrasl/slad145 .
^ Panjkov, Sonja (21 July 2023). "Luminous, Fast and Blue: Do the Finch and the Cow Share a Common Ancestor?" . Astrobites .
^ Cooper, Keith (6 October 2023). "Hubble Telescope just witnessed a massive intergalactic explosion and astronomers can't explain it - The leading theories involve stars being ripped apart by black holes or the merger of neutron stars" . Space.com . Archived from the original on 6 October 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023 .
^ Transient Name Server entry for AT 2023vth. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
^ Pursiainen, M.; Killestein, T. L.; Kuncarayakti, H.; Charalampopoulos, P.; Warwick, B.; Lyman, J.; Kotak, R.; Leloudas, G.; Coppejans, D.; Kravtsov, T.; Maeda, K.; Nagao, T.; Taguchi, K.; Ackley, K.; Dhillon, V. S.; Galloway, D. K.; Kumar, A.; O'Neill, D.; Ramsay, G.; Steeghs, D. (2024). "Optical evolution of AT 2024wpp: The high-velocity outflows in Cow-like transients are consistent with high spherical symmetry" . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . 537 (4): 3298. arXiv :2411.03272 . Bibcode :2025MNRAS.537.3298P . doi :10.1093/mnras/staf232 .
^ "2024wpp | Transient Name Server" . www.wis-tns.org . Retrieved 5 May 2025 .
^ "The bizarre space explosions scientists can't explain" . www.bbc.com . 4 May 2025. Retrieved 5 May 2025 .
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