The University of Sheffield’s ULTRASPEC camera, mounted on the Thai National Telescope, made it possible to sight the never-before-seen flashes.
Astrophysicists have resolved the controversy surrounding the nature of a rare type of stellar explosion, thanks to a camera designed and built at the University of Sheffield. Scientists have observed a series of bright, brief flashes occurring months after a stellar explosion, known as a luminous fast blue optical transient, or LFBOT.
One of the most crucial datasets for the research, published in Nature, was obtained with the University of Sheffield’s high-speed optical camera ULTRASPEC, mounted on the 2.4m Thai National Telescope. This showed that the repeated flares were as bright as the original explosion and yet each lasted only tens of seconds.
LFBOTs and Their Origins
Since their discovery in 2018, astronomers have speculated about what might drive such extreme explosions, which are far brighter than the violent ends massive stars typically experience as supernovae. The research team believes the previously unknown flare activity they observed, and in particular, their short timescale, confirms the engine of the LFBOT must be a stellar corpse — a DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06673-6