Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2023

42 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2023 ASTRO PUBLISHING spired by the last few letters of its astronomical designation, including the Camel, Koala and Tasmanian Devil. The physics of how these ob- jects form remains a mystery, and now the latest addition to the LFBOT collection raises more ques- tions than it answers. LFBOTs shine intensely blue and they evolve rapidly, reaching peak brightness and fading again in a matter of days, unlike supernovae which take weeks or months. Draw- ing on data from several tele- scopes, including Gemini South, one half of the International Gem- ini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, an international team of astronomers identified a transient, designated AT2023fhn and nick- named ‘the Finch’, that shows all the tell-tale characteristics of an LFBOT with an additional, unex- pected characteristic. Gemini South captures cosmic “Finch” by NOIRLab Josie Fenske I n 2018 astronomers witnessed an intense explosion far more pow- erful than the average supernova — 10 –100 times brighter. It was designated AT2018cow, nicknamed ‘the Cow’, and became the first ex- ample of a new class of astronomi- cal phenomena: luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs). Only a handful of these curious events have been confirmed to date, each given a clever zoological name in-