Mysterious ‘Cow’ Blast Studied with NASA Telescopes

A brief and unusual flash spotted in the night sky on June 16, 2018, puzzled astronomers and astrophysicists across the globe. The event, called AT2018cow and nicknamed “the Cow” after the coincidental last letters of its official designation, is unlike any celestial outburst ever seen before, prompting multiple theories about its source.

Over three days, the Cow produced a sudden explosion of light at least 10 times brighter than a typical supernova, and then it faded over the next few months. This unusual event occurred near a star-forming galaxy known as CGCG 137-068, located about 200 million light-years away in the constellation Hercules.