The Hubble Space Telescope recently witnessed a strange development. He observed an extremely bright, extremely fast flash of light from nowhere. Scientists describe this event as the Bright Fast Blue Optical Transition (LFBOT). The detail that makes this event interesting is that this situation occurred outside a galaxy.

The Hubble Telescope has made a breakthrough in the scientific world!

These flares were actually first discovered in 2018. Scientists named this event, which has come to the fore several times since 2018, ‘Finch’. Researchers used the Hubble Telescope to track the origin of the flash located between two galaxies. Astronomers thought these events originated within galaxies where stars were forming. However, this surprising development took them by surprise. Because this explosion took place very far from the star-forming region.

This explosion is one of the brightest explosions ever seen in space. Called a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT), it glows intensely in blue light. Then it develops rapidly and reaches the highest brightness. Additionally, while supernovae take weeks or months to dim, LFBOTs fade out again within a few days. 

Scientists have concluded that LFBOTs are formed by a special and rare type of supernova that happens to very massive, short-lived stars. Since these stars do not persist for long periods of time, they tend to be located near their star birthplaces. But this new flash challenges that concept.

Only a handful of LFBOTs have been discovered since 2018. All of this happens inside galaxies where stars are born. However, the LFBOT flash, discovered by Hubble in 2023, was seen among galaxies. This only adds to the mystery of what these transients are. Astronomers don’t yet know the underlying process of LFBOTs. Therefore, the ideas put forward about how this explosion occurred consist of assumptions based on some known temporary events.

“The Hubble observations were really important ,” principal investigator Ashley Chrimes said in a statement . It made us realize that this was unusual compared to others. Because without the Hubble data, we wouldn’t know this,” she said.

“The more we learn about LFBOTs, the more they surprise us,” Chrimes said. “We have now shown that LFBOTs can occur very far from the center of the nearest galaxy, and that Finch’s location is not what we would expect for any supernova.” said.

These flashes may not actually be caused by supernovae. Scientists consider the possibility that this situation may have occurred as a result of the disintegration of stars by black holes rather than supernovae. Or a fast-moving star may have exploded as it passed between two galaxies. It’s hard to tell at this stage of the research because the events are so rare. Research continues.