Hubble mystery light puzzles astronomers

[Contrary1]

"Almost three years ago, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope were perusing a cluster of galaxies about eight billion light-years from Earth when they came upon a flash of light unlike anything they had seen before.

Over the next 100 days, the object gradually brightened. Then it spent another 100 days growing dimmer, until it finally vanished from view.

Astronomers speaking last week at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, Calif., still have no idea what it was — or is.

Chemical analysis of the light proved just as puzzling as its visual effects, said Kyle Barbary of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28622042/

[Ian David]

1. Obviously, it's Jesus winking at us. n/t

[Orrex]

3. Or flashing us.

His Divine Junk lights up the Cosmos.

[kimmerspixelated]

2. Well, duh!

It has to be the aliens!

[Poll_Blind]

4. God opening the lid to peek inside and see if it needs a better shaking.

I say, go for it!

PB

[RC]

5. It was an earth like planet whose 'intelligent life' engaged in MAD.

Much as some on this planet are trying to do.

[Orrex]

6. What, me worry?

Oops. Wrong MAD.

[Sancho]

7. The Death Star just destroyed Alderaan...

piece of cake...

[Dead_Parrot]

8. Someone switched on their Large Hadron Collider

:hide:

[Wilms]

9. .

:spank:

[Thor_MN]

10. Blinking porch light.

Saying it's way past your bedtime and you have had planety of time to say goodnight. Get out of his car. Now.

[The Sushi Bandit]

11. It is the Destruction of Altair 4 (forbidden planet)

[tridim]

12. This sounds like a possibility

I don't know much about carbon stars, looks like I found my reasearch project for tonight. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_star

Normally this kind of AGB carbon star fuses hydrogen in a hydrogen burning shell, but in episodes separated by 104-105 years, the star transforms to burning helium in a shell, while the hydrogen fusion temporarily ceases. In this phase, the star's luminosity rises, and material from the interior of the star (notably carbon) moves up. Since the luminosity rises, the star expands so that the helium fusion ceases, and the hydrogen shell burning restarts. During these shell helium flashes, the mass loss from the star is significant, and after many shell helium flashes, an AGB star is transformed into a hot white dwarf and its atmosphere becomes material for a planetary nebula.