Well, that’s as good an explanation as any for this very very VERY strange object in the sky. It appeared, brightened insanely quickly, then DISAPPEARED in 2006. No, it’s NOT a supernova, thanks for asking. Hubble caught it, but humans didn’t spot it in the images until now.
“We suggest that the transient may be one of a new class.”
JESUS EFFING CHRIST. Ya think? Sometimes scientists’ attempts to be masters of dry, clinically detached understatement are just annoying. All I’m sayin’ is I’m glad we’re finally close to operational airborne lasers.
Still, this sort of thing just fascinates me. At one point I contemplated going back to UC Berkeley to get a second degree in Astrophysics because it was so darned interesting. Then I figured out I could save lots of money by just reading the texts in my own time, at my own pace. (Then somehow a decade went by. How’d that happen?) I’m determined to build a Dobsonian telescope one of these days, though. Kinda the definition of “amateur” — given the root Latin “amo” (to love) — an amateur is “one who learns for the love of it.”
Way too much to learn here in the Information Age, but boy it’s fun trying to absorb it all.
‘Ralph Wiggum voice’:
my cat’s name is “Mittens”!
Whats REALLY spooky is that when they graphed out the light they could not find anything to correspond with any known substance…..