Scientists discover unique space cow that has a flat explosion

In 2018, scientists discovered a new class of supernovae. The first object was discovered by the NuSTAR orbiting telescope and was given the number AT2018cow. Such supernovae have been nicknamed 'cow' because of the last three characters.

Here's What We Know

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have examined the data obtained at different wavelength ranges. Current scientific theories suggest a spherical explosion occurs during a supernova explosion. As it turns out, the explosion at the time of AT2018cow's birth was flat, making the first cosmic 'cow' detected even more unique.

The brightness, temperature and duration of the afterglow of the AT2018cow burst was several times more powerful than researchers have ever been able to record. That said, physicists have no explanation for the flat explosion, although there are several hypotheses.

One is that a supermassive black hole or neutron star formed after the explosion, causing the ejected shell to instantly form an accretion disk. The second assumption is that the accretion disk appeared before the supernova explosion.

In conclusion, add that in addition to AT2018cow, researchers were able to detect four "cows", but each of them had a spherical explosion. Scientists will continue to study the AT2018cow anomaly. Perhaps the new Vera C. Rubin space observatory will come to their aid. Rubin, which will become operational in 2024.

Source: Science Alert