Minutes-duration optical flares with supernova luminosities

Anna Y Q Ho¹, Daniel A Perley², Ping Chen³, Steve Schulze⁴, Vik Dhillon^{5

6}, Harsh Kumar⁷, Aswin Suresh⁷, Vishwajeet Swain⁷, Michael Bremer⁸, Stephen J Smartt^{9

10}, Joseph P Anderson^{11

12}, G C Anupama¹³, Supachai Awiphan¹⁴, Sudhanshu Barway¹³, Eric C Bellm¹⁵, Sagi Ben-Ami³, Varun Bhalerao⁷, Thomas de Boer¹⁶, Thomas G Brink¹⁷, Rick Burruss¹⁸, Poonam Chandra¹⁹, Ting-Wan Chen^{20

21}, Wen-Ping Chen²², Jeff Cooke^{23

24

25}, Michael W Coughlin²⁶, Kaustav K Das²⁷, Andrew J Drake²⁷, Alexei V Filippenko¹⁷, James Freeburn^{23

24}, Christoffer Fremling^{18

28}, Michael D Fulton¹⁰, Avishay Gal-Yam³, Lluís Galbany^{29

30}, Hua Gao¹⁶, Matthew J Graham²⁸, Mariusz Gromadzki³¹, Claudia P Gutiérrez^{29

30}, K-Ryan Hinds², Cosimo Inserra³², Nayana A J¹³, Viraj Karambelkar²⁷, Mansi M Kasliwal²⁷, Shri Kulkarni²⁷, Tomás E Müller-Bravo^{29

30}, Eugene A Magnier¹⁶, Ashish A Mahabal^{28

33}, Thomas Moore¹⁰, Chow-Choong Ngeow²², Matt Nicholl¹⁰, Eran O Ofek³, Conor M B Omand³⁴, Francesca Onori³⁵, Yen-Chen Pan²², Priscila J Pessi³⁴, Glen Petitpas^{36

37}, David Polishook³⁸, Saran Poshyachinda¹⁴, Miika Pursiainen³⁹, Reed Riddle¹⁸, Antonio C Rodriguez²⁷, Ben Rusholme⁴⁰, Enrico Segre⁴¹, Yashvi Sharma²⁷, Ken W Smith¹⁰, Jesper Sollerman³⁴, Shubham Srivastav¹⁰, Nora Linn Strotjohann³, Mark Suhr^{23

25}, Dmitry Svinkin⁴², Yanan Wang^{43

44}, Philip Wiseman⁴⁴, Avery Wold⁴⁰, Sheng Yang⁴⁵, Yi Yang¹⁷, Yuhan Yao²⁷, David R Young¹⁰, WeiKang Zheng¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. annayqho@cornell.edu.
² Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
³ Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
⁴ The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, Albanova University Center, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
⁶ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
⁷ Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, India.
⁸ Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France.
⁹ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁰ Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
¹¹ European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile.
¹² Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS), Santiago, Chile.
¹³ Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, India.
¹⁴ National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
¹⁵ DiRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹⁶ Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, HI, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
¹⁸ Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁹ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
²⁰ Physik-Department, TUM School of Natural Sciences, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany.
²¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Garching, Germany.
²² Graduate Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
²³ Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.
²⁴ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.
²⁵ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), Stromlo, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
²⁶ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
²⁷ Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
²⁸ Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
²⁹ Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain.
³⁰ Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Barcelona, Spain.
³¹ Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
³² Cardiff Hub for Astrophysics Research and Technology, School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
³³ Center for Data-Driven Discovery, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
³⁴ The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Albanova University Center, Stockholm, Sweden.
³⁵ INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico d'Abruzzo, Teramo, Italy.
³⁶ Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³⁷ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³⁸ Faculty of Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
³⁹ DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
⁴⁰ Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁴¹ Physics Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
⁴² Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia.
⁴³ Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴⁴ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
⁴⁵ Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou, China.

PMID: 37968403
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06673-6

Free article

Minutes-duration optical flares with supernova luminosities

Anna Y Q Ho et al. Nature. 2023 Nov.

Free article

. 2023 Nov;623(7989):927-931.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06673-6. Epub 2023 Nov 15.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. annayqho@cornell.edu.
² Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
³ Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
⁴ The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, Albanova University Center, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
⁶ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
⁷ Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, India.
⁸ Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France.
⁹ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁰ Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
¹¹ European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile.
¹² Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS), Santiago, Chile.
¹³ Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, India.
¹⁴ National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
¹⁵ DiRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹⁶ Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, HI, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
¹⁸ Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁹ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
²⁰ Physik-Department, TUM School of Natural Sciences, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany.
²¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Garching, Germany.
²² Graduate Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
²³ Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.
²⁴ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.
²⁵ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), Stromlo, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
²⁶ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
²⁷ Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
²⁸ Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
²⁹ Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain.
³⁰ Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Barcelona, Spain.
³¹ Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
³² Cardiff Hub for Astrophysics Research and Technology, School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
³³ Center for Data-Driven Discovery, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
³⁴ The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Albanova University Center, Stockholm, Sweden.
³⁵ INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico d'Abruzzo, Teramo, Italy.
³⁶ Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³⁷ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³⁸ Faculty of Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
³⁹ DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
⁴⁰ Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁴¹ Physics Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
⁴² Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia.
⁴³ Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴⁴ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
⁴⁵ Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou, China.

PMID: 37968403
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06673-6

Abstract

In recent years, certain luminous extragalactic optical transients have been observed to last only a few days¹. Their short observed duration implies a different powering mechanism from the most common luminous extragalactic transients (supernovae), whose timescale is weeks². Some short-duration transients, most notably AT2018cow (ref. ³), show blue optical colours and bright radio and X-ray emission⁴. Several AT2018cow-like transients have shown hints of a long-lived embedded energy source⁵, such as X-ray variability^6,7, prolonged ultraviolet emission⁸, a tentative X-ray quasiperiodic oscillation^9,10 and large energies coupled to fast (but subrelativistic) radio-emitting ejecta^11,12. Here we report observations of minutes-duration optical flares in the aftermath of an AT2018cow-like transient, AT2022tsd (the 'Tasmanian Devil'). The flares occur over a period of months, are highly energetic and are probably nonthermal, implying that they arise from a near-relativistic outflow or jet. Our observations confirm that, in some AT2018cow-like transients, the embedded energy source is a compact object, either a magnetar or an accreting black hole.

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References

1. Drout, M. R. et al. Rapidly evolving and luminous transients from Pan-STARRS1. Astrophys. J. 794, 23 (2014). - DOI
1. Kasen, D. in Handbook of Supernovae (eds Alsabti, A. & Murdin, P.) 939–965 (Springer, 2017).
1. Prentice, S. J. et al. The Cow: discovery of a luminous, hot, and rapidly evolving transient. Astrophys. J. Lett. 865, L3 (2018). - DOI
1. Ho, A. Y. Q. et al. A search for extragalactic fast blue optical transients in ZTF and the rate of AT2018cow-like transients. Astrophys. J. 949, 120 (2023). - DOI
1. Margutti, R. et al. An embedded X-ray source shines through the aspherical AT 2018cow: revealing the inner workings of the most luminous fast-evolving optical transients. Astrophys. J. 872, 18 (2019). - DOI

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Minutes-duration optical flares with supernova luminosities

Affiliations

Minutes-duration optical flares with supernova luminosities

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

References

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources