Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Chrimes (Rayboud U), J. DePasquale (STScI)

A Hubble Space Telescope image of a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT) designated AT 2023fhn, indicated by pointers. It shines intensely in blue light and evolves rapidly, reaching peak brightness and fading again in a matter of days, unlike supernovae which take weeks or months to dim. Only a handful of previous LFBOTs have been discovered since 2018. The surprise is that this latest transient, seen in 2023, lies at a large offset from both the barred spiral galaxy at right and the dwarf galaxy to the upper left. Only Hubble could pinpoint its location. And, the results are leaving astronomers even more confounded because all prevous LFBOTs have been found in star-formig regions in the spiral arms of galaxy. It’s not clear what astronomical event would trigger such a blast far outside of a galaxy.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-024

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/