"Unprecedented Flat Explosion Observed in Space by Scientists"
Originally Published 2 years ago — by Phys.org
Scientists have observed an explosion in space that is the most aspherical ever seen, with a shape like a disk emerging a few days after it was discovered. The explosion observed was a bright Fast Blue Optical Transient (FBOT), which is an extremely rare class of explosion. By measuring the polarization of the blast, scientists were able to reconstruct the 3D shape of the explosion, effectively seeing something the size of our solar system but in a galaxy 180 million light years away. The discovery challenges our preconceptions of how stars might explode in the universe and could bring us closer to understanding FBOT explosions.