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A SUDDEN, mysterious burst of bright light in the sky could be from a black hole devouring a vast, unusually bare star. In 2018, astronomers spotted a new kind of cosmic explosion that became brighter more quickly than any other. The flash, called AT2018cow or “the Cow” for short, took only a few days to reach its peak brightness, rather than the weeks that are required for typical supernovae. There was no initial obvious explanation for such a burst, and in the years since, we have seen only a handful of other explosions like these, which are collectively called fast blue optical transients (FBOTs). Their origin remains a mystery. …
摘自《新科学家》(New Scientist)第3587期 · 2026年3月21日。仅引用开头一小段供了解文章,版权归原刊所有,全文请阅读原刊。