Astronomers have recently observed what can only be described as a series of extremely bright explosions in space, and so far there is no good explanation.
Would we have witnessed a battle in space?
The events were detected by the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Programme (DES-SN), a collaborative program carried out at 25 different astronomical institutions whose goal is to track and identify supernovae and dark matter in the vast dark areas of space.
By their estimates, these explosions — or whatever they were — occurred in a corner of the universe about 4 billion light-years away. These mysterious events were extremely hot, with temperatures ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 degrees Celsius (the Sun’s surface temperature, by comparison, averages 5,000 degrees Celsius).
These explosions were also enormous, ranging in size from several times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, to up to a hundred times. Whatever those events were, they were terrifying to behold.
Astronomers at The Royal Society are still not sure what exactly could have caused these bright explosions. Typically, supernovae last for several months, but these events exhibit maximum brightness for only a week or so.
One of the many theories points out that a powerful supernova could have incinerated a cloud of material ejected from a dying star, although much more data is needed before any conclusions can be drawn.
Would we be able to identify something truly anomalous or unique if we witnessed it? Or, are scientists looking for a more likely explanation based on our current knowledge?
Miika Pursiainen of the University of Southampton has been analysing the data, but so far has been left with more questions than answers: “Our work confirms that astrophysics and cosmology are still sciences with many unanswered questions!”.
