Hubble telescope spots mystery object which brightened and dimmed

by Rich Bowden - Sep 17 2008, 22:44

U.S. scientists making routine observations of a distant star system have been astounded to report the appearance, then rapid disappearance, of a mystery object over a seven-month period.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at a distant cluster of stars an estimated 8.2 billion light years away as part of their 2006 Supernova Cosmology Project.

The U.C. Berkeley researchers, led by astrophysics grad student Kyle Barbary, told the New Scientist this week there was nothing viewed at the location of the appearance of the object, nor at the time of its disappearance, and that the spectrum of the mysterious object also did not reflect known elements.

"Because we can't see anything we recognise in the spectrum, we can't tell if it's even in the galaxy or in another galaxy," said Barbary, lead author of the new study, in an interview with the magazine.

The object, named "SCP 06F6," was spotted while Hubble was pointed at the distant Bootes cluster in 2006. It increased its luminosity by a factor of 120 over a 100-day period before fading away over a similar time frame. Its distance from Earth has been measured as being from between 130 light years and 11 billion light years distant -- something of the ultimate 'ball-park' estimate, commentators have noted.

With normal supernovas brightening in less than a month before disappearing from view, scientists are suggesting the object may be in a class of its own. They are continuing to monitor the region in case it reappears.

"We are hoping someone else might have seen something similar," Barbary told New Scientist, "or might be able to shed some light on it."

The findings have been published in Astrophysical Journal.

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