On 5 February 2025 , the Palomar Observatory near San Diego , California , undertake a survey of the night sky , focusing on a fussy realm and photographing it multiple times , in an attempt to spot bodies in the Solar System such as asteroid as they fleet in front of stars , blur them ever so slightly .
At 8:52 that eventide , they captured an image contain three stars close to each other . At 9:45 necropsy , a 2d ikon was appropriate of the same area . This time , the objects were nowhere to be see .
This is pretty strange . Stars maydim like Betelgeuseor explode leaving anafterglow for hour or day , but these were simply there at 8:52 atomic number 61 and had vanished less than an hr later . So what happened to them ?
A raw squad , interested in such " transient " , look into it and came up with several potential explanation . First , they look to see if the object had been seen since .
" We took advantage of the Virtual Observatory capacity to look for the triple transient in more recent image and catalogues , " the team wrote in their pre - print newspaper , which has not yet been peer review . " The resolution of this search concluded that the transient does not seem in any late persona of that area during the subsequent 69 class . "
Next , the team equate the transient with otherstarscaptured in the same region . If there were significant differences , particularly towards the edges of the objective , it could indicate flaws in photographic plates or even elementary particles hitting those plates . However , they found the shapes to be outstandingly similar , despite being of unlike size .
" In sum-up , we find no evidence that the transient is anything other than a bona fide undetermined , point source of illumination , " the team write . " In fussy , the profiles show no evidence of a moving source such as an aircraft , asteroid , or primary particle nor of a shortcoming in the photographic home plate . "
The squad ruled out the stars dimming independently , give the rarity of stars disappear like this at all . Whatever caused one target to disappear from our view caused them all to . The same last if these were shadowy aim that were induce to brighten briefly by a vulgar issue .
If the object is indeed three separate object in place , this have in mind that they must be close together in order for the light ( and then lack of it ) to go far all within that 60 minutes ’s time frame . If this is the right explanation , it direct the objects a caboodle close to our Solar System than other account do .
" To be causally connected , the three unclouded root must reside physically within 6 au of each other and are no more than 2 clear - year[s ] away . This space is less than the near wizard , the alpha Cen system , bringing the locale of the three transient to a aloofness within our Sun ’s vicinity , if not the privileged Solar System , or even Earth ’s orbit " .
This would make it more probable the objects were asteroid orother objects in our solar organisation , perhaps the Oort swarm , excuse why they were not seen in subsequent surveys .
Another possibility proposed by the team is that the objects were caused bygravitational lensing , where place - clip is distort by vastly heavy objects , sometimes magnifying objects far into the distance to astronomers . While a neat idea , the team tell it was difficult to conceive of as it would throw up another mystery .
" example involve ground aim that are optically aglow for less than one hour coupled with foreground gravitational lensing seem plausible , " the team wrote . " If so , a substantial universe of massive objects with structure serving as the lenses , to produce three images , are require to explain the sub - hour transients . "
Unfortunately , there is no definitive resolution as of yet , and the team called for further be - up lookup for similar transient .
The study is issue to the pre - print serverarXiv .
[ H / MT : Universe Today ]
