William Atkins
Sunday, 14 September 2008 20:51
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 2
Astronomers were perplexed by what Hubble observed because SCP 06F6 did not fit into any classification of astronomical body. They tried to match it with various classes of objects.
They wrote "
… in addition to being inconsistent with all known supernova types, is not matched to any spectrum in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database…. We suggest that the transient may be one of a new class." [Sky and Telescope: “
Hubble Finds a Mystery Object”]
The astronomical team conclude in their paper,
“If this transient does indeed represent a new class of either galactic or extragalactic transients, such objects will be of great interest for future extensive surveys of the time-variable sky.”
The astronomers writing the article include: K. Barbary, K. S. Dawson,
K. Tokita, G. Aldering, R. Amanullah, N. V. Connolly, M. Doi, L.
Faccioli,V. Fadeyev, A. S. Fruchter, G. Goldhaber, A. Goobar, A. Gude,
X. Huang, Y. Ihara, K. Konishi, M. Kowalski, C. Lidman, J. Meyers, T.
Morokuma, P. Nugent, S. Perlmutter, D. Rubin, D. Schlege, A. L.
Spadafora, N. Suzuki, H. K. Swift, N. Takanashi, R. C. Thomas, and N.
Yasuda.