These cosmic blasts outshine supernovas and no one knows what they are
They call them fast blue optical transients, or FBOTs: blasts as luminous as a supernova, or brighter, but flaring and fading far faster, and glowing a distinctive blue. They are genuinely rare, going off at less than a thousandth the rate of ordinary core-collapse supernovae — the explosions that mark the death of a massive star. Most were first spotted at enormous cosmological distances, but a handful have turned up closer to home.
- ▪They call them fast blue optical transients, or FBOTs: blasts as luminous as a supernova, or brighter, but flaring and fading far faster, and glowing a distinctive blue.
- ▪They are genuinely rare, going off at less than a thousandth the rate of ordinary core-collapse supernovae — the explosions that mark the death of a massive star.
- ▪Most were first spotted at enormous cosmological distances, but a handful have turned up closer to home.
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| Original publisher | Boing Boing |
| Canonical URL | https://boingboing.net/2026/07/28/fast-blue-optical-transient.html |
| Publication time | Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-28T15:40:01.091Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-28T15:40:01.091Z |
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| Cluster | m0xF0h9DnRZZ · 1 stories |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
These cosmic blasts outshine supernovas and no one knows what they are Ellsworth Toohey 8:00 am Tue Jul 28, 2026 fast blue optical transient — Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF https://public.nrao.edu/blogs/author/billsaxton/ / CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikipedia) Sky surveys keep catching a kind of cosmic explosion that astronomers can't explain. They call them fast blue optical transients, or FBOTs: blasts as luminous as a supernova, or brighter, but flaring and fading far faster, and glowing a distinctive blue. They are genuinely rare, going off at less than a thousandth the rate of ordinary core-collapse supernovae — the explosions that mark the death of a massive star. Most were first spotted at enormous cosmological distances, but a handful have turned up closer to home.
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