Fast blue optical transient

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Illustration of a FBOT FBOTemissions.jpg
Illustration of a FBOT

In astronomy, a fast blue optical transient (FBOT), or more specifically, luminous fast blue optical transient (LFBOT), is an explosive transient event similar to supernovae and gamma-ray bursts with high optical luminosity, rapid evolution, and predominantly blue emission. [1] The origins of such explosions are currently unclear, with events occurring at not more than 0.1% of the typical core-collapse supernova rate. [2] This class of transients initially emerged from large sky surveys at cosmological distances, [3] [4] yet in recent years a small number have been discovered in the local Universe, most notably AT 2018cow.

Contents

The precise definition of what constitutes a 'fast blue optical transient' is currently contentious in the literature, largely defined by the observational properties rather than the underlying mechanisms/objects. Even within the class, growing samples of candidates [5] are beginning to reveal significant variation in properties when the objects are studied in greater detail, potentially indicative of different progenitor channels or explosion mechanisms.

List

TransientReportedDateObservatoryNotes
AT 2018cow [6] [7] [8] 201816 June 2018 ATLAS-HKO "The Cow", the most local FBOT known, and the event with the richest dataset, making It a prototype of the class.

Peak luminosity erg s⁻¹, exceeding that of superluminous supernovae

ZTF18abvkwla

(AT 2018lug) [2] [9]

202012 September 2018 Zwicky Transient Facility "The Koala"

Blackbody temperature of over 40,000 Kelvin at peak

CSS161010 [10] [11] 202010 October 2016 CRTS Shows mildly relativistic (55% the speed of light) mass outflows
AT 2020xnd (ZTF20acigmel) [12] [13] 202112 October 2020 Zwicky Transient Facility "The Camel"
AT 2020mrf [14] [15] 202212 June 2020 Spektr-RG, Zwicky Transient Facility 200 times more luminous on the X-ray spectrum at its peak than AT 2018cow and CSS161010
AT 2022tsd [16] [17] 20237 September 2022 Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Zwicky Transient Facility "The Tasmanian Devil", minutes-duration optical flares suggestive of a NS/BH from a failed supernova event. [18] [19]
AT 2023fhn [20] [17] [21] [22] 202310 April 2023 Zwicky Transient Facility "The Finch" or "The Fawn"
AT 2023vth (ZTF23ableqsp) [23] 202318 October 2023 Zwicky Transient Facility First FBOT to be labelled as such on the Transient Name Server.
AT 2024wpp [24] [25] [26] 202426 September 2024 Zwicky Transient Facility "The wasp" (tentatively), brightest FBOT at time of discovery with peak at −21.9 mag
AT 2025wap (ZTF25abkgjzb) [27] 202521 August 2025 Zwicky Transient Facility

See also

References

  1. ↑ O"Callaghan, Jonathan (19 July 2023). "A Cow, a Camel and a Finch Exploded in Space. What Is Going On? - Astronomers have yet to determine the cause of luminous fast blue optical transients, and the latest they have detected is raising even more questions". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  2. 1 2 Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Perley, Daniel A.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Dong, Dillon Z. J.; De, Kishalay; Chandra, Poonam; Andreoni, Igor; Bellm, Eric C.; Burdge, Kevin B.; Coughlin, Michael; Dekany, Richard (26 May 2020). "The Koala: A Fast Blue Optical Transient with Luminous Radio Emission from a Starburst Dwarf Galaxy atz= 0.27". The Astrophysical Journal. 895 (1): 49. arXiv: 2003.01222 . Bibcode:2020ApJ...895...49H. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab8bcf . ISSN   1538-4357. S2CID   211817823.
  3. ↑ Drout, M. R.; Chornock, R.; Soderberg, A. M.; Sanders, N. E.; McKinnon, R.; Rest, A.; Foley, R. J.; Milisavljevic, D.; Margutti, R.; Berger, E.; Calkins, M.; Fong, W.; Gezari, S.; Huber, M. E.; Kankare, E. (19 September 2014). "Rapidly-Evolving and Luminous Transients from Pan-STARRS1". The Astrophysical Journal. 794 (1): 23. arXiv: 1405.3668 . Bibcode:2014ApJ...794...23D. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/794/1/23. ISSN   1538-4357.
  4. ↑ Pursiainen, M.; Childress, M.; Smith, M.; Prajs, S.; Sullivan, M.; Davis, T. M.; Foley, R. J.; Asorey, J.; Calcino, J.; Carollo, D.; Curtin, C.; D'Andrea, C. B.; Glazebrook, K.; Gutierrez, C.; Hinton, S. R. (21 November 2018). "Rapidly evolving transients in the Dark Energy Survey". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 481 (1): 894–917. arXiv: 1803.04869 . doi: 10.1093/mnras/sty2309 . ISSN   0035-8711.
  5. ↑ Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Perley, Daniel A.; Gal-Yam, Avishay; Lunnan, Ragnhild; Sollerman, Jesper; Schulze, Steve; Das, Kaustav K.; Dobie, Dougal; Yao, Yuhan; Fremling, Christoffer; Adams, Scott; Anand, Shreya; Andreoni, Igor; Bellm, Eric C.; Bruch, Rachel J. (1 June 2023). "A Search for Extragalactic Fast Blue Optical Transients in ZTF and the Rate of AT2018cow-like Transients". The Astrophysical Journal. 949 (2): 120. arXiv: 2105.08811 . Bibcode:2023ApJ...949..120H. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/acc533 . ISSN   0004-637X.
  6. ↑ Smartt, S. J.; et al. (17 June 2018). "ATLAS18qqn (AT2018cow) - a bright transient spatially coincident with CGCG 137-068 (60 Mpc)". The Astronomer's Telegram . 11727 (11727): 1. Bibcode:2018ATel11727....1S . Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Prentice, S. J.; Maguire, K.; Smartt, S. J.; Magee, M. R.; Schady, P.; Sim, S.; Chen, T.-W.; Clark, P.; Colin, C.; Fulton, M.; McBrien, O. (17 September 2018). "The Cow: Discovery of a Luminous, Hot, and Rapidly Evolving Transient". The Astrophysical Journal. 865 (1): L3. arXiv: 1807.05965 . Bibcode:2018ApJ...865L...3P. doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/aadd90 . ISSN   2041-8213. S2CID   54703801.
  8. ↑ Castelvecchi, Davide (2 November 2018). "Holy Cow! Astronomers agog at mysterious new supernova" . Nature. 563 (7730): 168–169. Bibcode:2018Natur.563..168C. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-07260-w. PMID   30401847. S2CID   53233136.
  9. ↑ "A Fast, Blue "Koala" Shines Bright in a Distant Galaxy". 15 May 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  10. 1 2 Coppejans, D. L.; Margutti, R.; Terreran, G.; Nayana, A. J.; Coughlin, E. R.; Laskar, T.; Alexander, K. D.; Bietenholz, M.; Caprioli, D.; Chandra, P.; Drout, M. R. (26 May 2020). "A Mildly Relativistic Outflow from the Energetic, Fast-rising Blue Optical Transient CSS161010 in a Dwarf Galaxy". The Astrophysical Journal. 895 (1): L23. arXiv: 2003.10503 . Bibcode:2020ApJ...895L..23C. doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab8cc7 . ISSN   2041-8213. S2CID   214623364.
  11. ↑ "Astrophysicists capture new class of transient objects". news.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  12. ↑ Perley, Daniel A; Ho, Anna Y Q; Yao, Yuhan; Fremling, Christoffer; Anderson, Joseph P; Schulze, Steve; Kumar, Harsh; Anupama, G C; Barway, Sudhanshu; Bellm, Eric C; Bhalerao, Varun (27 October 2021). "Real-time discovery of AT2020xnd: a fast, luminous ultraviolet transient with minimal radioactive ejecta". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 508 (4): 5138–5147. arXiv: 2103.01968 . doi: 10.1093/mnras/stab2785 . ISSN   0035-8711.
  13. ↑ O'Callaghan, Jonathan (10 March 2021). "New Kind of Space Explosion Reveals the Birth of a Black Hole". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  14. 1 2 Yao, Yuhan; Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Medvedev, Pavel; A. J., Nayana; Perley, Daniel A.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Chandra, Poonam; Sazonov, Sergey; Gilfanov, Marat; Khorunzhev, Georgii; Khatami, David K.; Sunyaev, Rashid (1 August 2022). "The X-Ray and Radio Loud Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2020mrf: Implications for an Emerging Class of Engine-driven Massive Star Explosions". The Astrophysical Journal. 934 (2): 104. arXiv: 2112.00751 . Bibcode:2022ApJ...934..104Y. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac7a41 . ISSN   0004-637X. S2CID   244798769.
  15. ↑ "Astronomers Find Most Luminous "Cow" to Shine in X-Rays". California Institute of Technology. 10 January 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  16. ↑ Matthews, D.; Margutti, R.; Metzger, B. D.; Milisavljevic, D.; Migliori, G.; Laskar, T.; Brethauer, D.; Berger, E.; Chornock, R.; Drout, M.; Ramirez-Ruiz, E. (19 June 2023). "Unprecedented X-Ray Emission from the Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2022tsd". Research Notes of the AAS. 7 (6): 126. arXiv: 2306.01114 . Bibcode:2023RNAAS...7..126M. doi: 10.3847/2515-5172/acdde1 . ISSN   2515-5172.
  17. 1 2 O’Callaghan, Jonathan (19 July 2023). "A Cow, a Camel and a Finch Exploded in Space. What Is Going On?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  18. ↑ Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Perley, Daniel A.; Chen, Ping; Schulze, Steve; Dhillon, Vik; Kumar, Harsh; Suresh, Aswin; Swain, Vishwajeet; Bremer, Michael; Smartt, Stephen J.; Anderson, Joseph P.; Anupama, G. C.; Awiphan, Supachai; Barway, Sudhanshu; Bellm, Eric C. (15 November 2023). "Minutes-duration optical flares with supernova luminosities". Nature. 623 (7989): 927–931. arXiv: 2311.10195 . Bibcode:2023Natur.623..927H. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06673-6. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   37968403.
  19. ↑ O'Callaghan, Jonathan (15 November 2023). "Mysterious 'Tasmanian devil' space explosion baffles astronomers" . Nature. 623 (7989): 900. Bibcode:2023Natur.623..900O. doi:10.1038/d41586-023-03569-3. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   37968468.
  20. ↑ Chrimes, A. A.; Jonker, P. G.; Levan, A. J.; Coppejans, D. L.; Gaspari, N.; Gompertz, B. P.; Groot, P. J.; Malesani, D. B.; Mummery, A.; Stanway, E. R.; Wiersema, K. (2024). "AT 2023fhn (the Finch): a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient at a large offset from its host galaxy". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 527 (1): L47 –L53. arXiv: 2307.01771 . Bibcode:2024MNRAS.527L..47C. doi: 10.1093/mnrasl/slad145 .
  21. ↑ Panjkov, Sonja (21 July 2023). "Luminous, Fast and Blue: Do the Finch and the Cow Share a Common Ancestor?". Astrobites.
  22. ↑ Cooper, Keith (6 October 2023). "Hubble Telescope just witnessed a massive intergalactic explosion and astronomers can't explain it - The leading theories involve stars being ripped apart by black holes or the merger of neutron stars". Space.com . Archived from the original on 6 October 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  23. ↑ Transient Name Server entry for AT 2023vth. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  24. ↑ Pursiainen, M.; Killestein, T. L.; Kuncarayakti, H.; Charalampopoulos, P.; Warwick, B.; Lyman, J.; Kotak, R.; Leloudas, G.; Coppejans, D.; Kravtsov, T.; Maeda, K.; Nagao, T.; Taguchi, K.; Ackley, K.; Dhillon, V. S.; Galloway, D. K.; Kumar, A.; O'Neill, D.; Ramsay, G.; Steeghs, D. (2024). "Optical evolution of AT 2024wpp: The high-velocity outflows in Cow-like transients are consistent with high spherical symmetry". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 537 (4): 3298. arXiv: 2411.03272 . Bibcode:2025MNRAS.537.3298P. doi: 10.1093/mnras/staf232 .
  25. ↑ "2024wpp | Transient Name Server". www.wis-tns.org. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  26. ↑ "The bizarre space explosions scientists can't explain". www.bbc.com. 4 May 2025. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  27. ↑ "AT 2025wap". Transient Name Server. IAU . Retrieved 28 August 2025.
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