Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. who specializes in science, space, physics, astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, quantum mechanics and technology. Rob's articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University\n
A weird cosmic explosion that stunned scientists in 2018 just got even stranger. A new analysis of the polarized light from the first recorded fast blue optical transient explosion — officially known as AT2018cow and nicknamed"the Cow" — revealed that the blast is the most asymmetrical explosion ever seen by astronomers, bursting into space in a flattened, pancake-like shape rather than a typical sphere.
FBOTs like the Cow were already a major puzzle for scientists. Since the discovery of the Cow in 2018, only four other similar transients have been sighted, and as a result, very little is known about FBOTs or what causes them. But one thing is clear: They don't behave like typical supernovas, the most common type of space explosion, which occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel and collapse under their own gravity.
These polarization observations allowed the team to determine the Cow's strange shape. Light from the Cow was measured using the Liverpool Telescope, whose primary mirror is only 6.5 feet in diameter. The team used these data to create a 3D model of the explosion, with polarization allowing them to reconstruct it as if it had been spotted by a telescope with a diameter of around 388 miles . This allowed them to map the explosion to its edges, revealing just how flat it actually was.
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