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Wikenigma - an Encyclopedia of Unknowns Wikenigma - an Encyclopedia of the Unknown

Fast Blue Optical Transients

Fast Blue Optical Transients (FBOTs) are a recently discovered (2014) class of transient astronomical objects. They have similarities with Gamma-ray burstsplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigGamma-ray bursts

Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) were first discovered by satellites originally intended to scan for nuclear weapon detonations.They range from bursts of ten milliseconds to several hours, and also have differing energy levels. They are generally unexplained.
- but appear to be vastly more powerful.

A research team from Northwestern University, US, have recently calculated that the events appear to be able to expel a mass of 1% > 10% of the mass of the Sun at a velocity of 55% light-speed.

There is currently no explanation of how this might happen.

See: news release , Northwestern University, US, May 2020.


Also see : Fast radio burstsplugin-autotooltip__plain plugin-autotooltip_bigFast radio bursts

"Lasting only a fraction of a second yet packing a phenomenal amount of energy, FRBs are brief radio flashes of unknown origin that appear to come from random directions on the sky. Though only a handful have been documented previously, astronomers believe that the observable Universe is rocked by thousands of these events each day."

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