uranologist have obtain a strange flash of X - rays in a distant galaxy , and they are struggling to work out what caused it .

The case was first observed by NASA ’s Chandra decade - ray Observatory in October 2014 . Its locating in a galaxy 10.7 billion light - class off was later derive by the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes .

What the astronomer see was a period in the sky known as the Chandra Deep Field - South ( CDF - S ) that became 1,000 times brighter in a few hours . After a day , it faded almost entirely out of opinion . Astudydescribing the findings is to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society .

“ Ever since discovering this germ , we ’ve been struggling to infer its origin , ” said lead author Franz Bauer of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago , Chile in astatement . “ It ’s like we have a fretsaw puzzler but we do n’t have all of the firearm . ”

No such event has ever been seen by the Chandra lookout station before or after . And in two and a half calendar month of observing this generator , spread out over 17 age , it never brighten again .

While at a loss to explain it , there are some possibilities . Two of these would involve it being a gamma - shaft burst ( GRB ) outcome , huge explosion that can be triggered by the prostration of a monolithic whizz . GRBs can also be because of stars conflate with other stars , or with a black hole . These can bring about powerful jets that , if level towards us , seem for a abbreviated moment of time .

For this special source , though , one possibility is that it may have been a GRB that was not pointed directly towards us . Another is that it may be a GRB in a more remote galaxy . And a third idea is that it ’s the solvent of a medium - sized grim hole exhaust a white midget hotshot .

“ However , none of the above scenario can wholly excuse all observed properties , ” the investigator publish in their paper . Thus , they suggest this might be a “ new eccentric of varying phenomenon whose nature remains to be determined . ”

To get to the bottom of it , astronomers will be hoping to see similar events with other telescopes like ESA ’s XMM - Newton or NASA ’s Swift satellite . But for now it tot up to a number of things , likefast radio bursts(FRBs ) , that we just are n’t sure about in the universe .