Hubble Finds a Mystery Object

[RobertSeattle]

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/newsblog/28244844.html?pageSize=0

Don't get the idea that we've found every kind of astronomical object there is in the universe. In a paper to appear in the Astrophysical Journal, astronomers working on the Supernova Cosmology Project report finding a new kind of something that they cannot make any sense of.

The project used the Hubble Space Telescope to monitor very distant galaxy clusters for supernovae. On February 21, 2006, in the direction of a far-away cluster in Bootes named CL 1432.5+3332.8 (redshift 1.112, light travel time 8.2 billion years), Hubble began seeing something brighten. It continued brightening for about 100 days and peaked at 21st magnitude in two near-infrared colors. It then faded away over a similar timescale, until nothing was left in view down to 26th magnitude. The object brightened and faded by a factor of at least 120, maybe more.

[slackmaster]

1. Cosmic cigarette butt burning out?

:shrug:

[hvn_nbr_2]

2. That was Palin's star.

Kidding aside, thanks for the info. Interesting.

[mikelgb]

4. lol

[mikelgb]

3. a beacon?

[silverweb]

6. Isn't that an intriguing thought?

n/t

[GodlessBiker]

5. The Death Star destroying Alderaan.

[JimDandy]

7. Well that's VERY late breaking news. Why did it take 2.5 earth years to get this news to us humans?

[Posteritatis]

10. Telescopes produce a LOT of data

It wouldn't surprise me if it could take months or more to work through the pile, corroborate with other observatories ("did you guys see that too? No? What about you guys?"), etc. That and you've got publishing time and so on.

This looks like an actual discovery and not one of those announcements by press release that keep turning out to be much ado about nothing.

[JimDandy]

11. It IS very exciting.

Could it be a galaxy that's orbiting a black hole? As it comes out from behind the hole it steadily brightens and when it goes back behind the black hole it steadily loses brightness.

I am a "loves astronomy, but doesn't know much about the physics behind it" kind of person, so don't laugh at my guess.

[BadgerKid]

14. If it's a galaxy orbiting

a black hole, then you might expect microlensing -- light following a bent path around the black hole. The article claims microlensing isn't present.

[NoThirdBushTerm]

8. uh oh

All our base are belong to them!!!!

[redwitch]

9. John McCain's integrity?

n/t

[Canuckistanian]

12. Spooky

I can't imagine a stellar object that appears then disappears in the space of about 200 days.

It doesn't seem to be a distant Supernova. It wouldn't disappear so quickly.

[hunter]

13. Incoming...

The alien starship had its engines pointed toward us and was decelerating. We know they are up to no good because their engine output frequencies were tuned to mask out the doppler shift.

:scared: