The phenomenon, called a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT), flashed onto the scene where it wasn't expected to be found, far away from any host galaxy. Only Hubble could pinpoint its location. And, the results are leaving astronomers even more confounded. To start with, they don’t know what LFBOTs are. The Hubble results suggest they know even less by ruling out some possible theories.
LFBOTs are among the brightest known visible-light events in the universe – going off unexpectedly like camera flashbulbs. Only a handful have been found since the first discovery in 2018 – an event located about 200 million light-years away that was nicknamed "the Cow." Presently, LFBOTs are detected once per year.
After its initial detection, the latest LFBOT was observed by multiple telescopes across the electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to radio waves. Designated AT2023fhn and nicknamed "the Finch," the transitory event showed all the tell-tale characteristics of an LFBOT. It shined intensely in blue light and evolved rapidly, reaching peak brightness and fading again in a matter of days, unlike supernovae, which take weeks or months to dim.
But unlike any other LFBOT seen before, Hubble found that the Finch is located between two neighboring galaxies – about 50,000 light-years from a nearby spiral galaxy and about 15,000 light-years from a smaller galaxy.
Source: https://science.nasa.gov
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