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Black holes slamming into scorching stars may be causing mysterious blue flashes in the cosmos

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An illustration shows a black hole colliding with a Wolf Rayet star triggering a bright blue blast. (Image credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)) Out in the universe, there exist mysterious and powerful bright blue cosmic explosions called Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOT) — and new research may finally have some answers as to where these strange blasts come from. The first of these explosions was spotted in 2018, and only 14 have been detected since, leading to a solid mystery for astronomers. Now, however, the team behind the new research believes the events are caused when a compact stellar remnant, like a black hole or a neutron star , slams into the universe's hottest class of star, massive stellar bodies called Wolf-Rayet stars . Those other proposed potential origins for LFBOTs range from the death of massive stars in so-called core-collapse supernovas to extreme tidal disruption events (TDEs), involving very massive black holes ripping up and devouring stars .…

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