In the optical sky, minutes-duration transients from cosmological distances are rare. Known objects that give rise to such transients include gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most luminous explosions in the universe that have been detected at redshift as high as z ~ 9.4. These high-redshift GRBs and their associated emission can be used to probe the star formation and reionization history in the era of cosmic dawn. Here we report a near-infrared transient with an observed duration shorter than 245 s coincident with the luminous star-forming galaxy GN-z11 at z ~ 11. The telluric absorption shown in the near-infrared spectrum indicates its origin from above the atmosphere. We can rule out the possibility of known man-made objects or moving objects in the Solar system based on the observational information and our current understanding of the properties of these objects. Since some long-duration GRBs are associated with a bright ultraviolet (UV) or optical flash, we investigate the possibility that the detected signal arose from a rest-frame UV flash associated with a long GRB from GN-z11. Despite the very low probability of being a GRB, we find that the spectrum, brightness, and duration of the transient are consistent with such an interpretation. Our result may suggest that long GRBs can be produced as early as 420 million years after the Big Bang.
The recently discovered rapid transient GN-z11-flash has been suggested to be the prompt-emission ultraviolet flash associated with a gamma-ray burst serendipitously exploding in the ultra-high-$z$ galaxy GN-z11. We here place the flash into the context of the early ultraviolet emission of gamma-ray bursts, and find it is in agreement with the luminosity distribution of these events.
The optical light that is generated simultaneously with the x-rays and gamma-rays during a gamma-ray burst (GRB) provides clues about the nature of the explosions that occur as massive stars collapse to form black holes. We report on the bright optical flash and fading afterglow from the powerful burst GRB 130427A and present a comparison with the properties of the gamma-ray emission that show correlation of the optical and >100 MeV photon flux light curves during the first 7,000 seconds. We attribute this correlation to co-generation in an external shock. The simultaneous, multi-color, optica…
We present and discuss the UV/optical photometric light curves and absolute magnitudes of the Type Ia supernova (SN) 2011de from the Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope. We find it to be the UV brightest SN Ia yet observed--more than a factor of ten brighter than normal SNe Ia in the mid-ultraviolet. This object is an extreme example of the differences seen in the ultraviolet for objects which do not appear remarkable in the optical. We find that the UV/optical brightness and broad light curves are broadly consistent with additional flux from the shock of the ejecta hitting a red giant compani…
Early observations of Type Ia supernovae (SNe$\,$Ia) provide essential clues for understanding the progenitor system that gave rise to the terminal thermonuclear explosion. We present exquisite observations of SN$\,$2019yvq, the second observed SN$\,$Ia, after iPTF$\,$14atg, to display an early flash of emission in the ultraviolet (UV) and optical. Our analysis finds that SN$\,$2019yvq was unusual, even when ignoring the initial flash, in that it was moderately underluminous for an SN$\,$Ia ($M_g \approx -18.5\,$mag at peak) yet featured very high absorption velocities ($v \approx 15,000\,\mat…
The most common progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are massive stars with strong stellar winds. We show that the GRB blast wave in the wind should emit a bright GeV flash. It is produced by inverse Compton cooling of the thermal plasma behind the forward shock wave. The main part of the flash is shaped by scattering of the prompt MeV radiation (emitted at smaller radii) which streams through the external blast wave. The inverse-Compton flash is bright due to the huge e+- enrichment of the external medium. At late times, the blast wave switches to normal synchrotron-self-Compton cooling. Th…
Despite the pre-Swift expectation that bright optical flashes from reverse shocks would be prevalent in early-time afterglow emission, rapid response observations show this not to be the case. Although very bright at early times, some GRBs such as GRB 061007 and GRB 060418, lack the short-lived optical flash from the reverse shock within minutes after the GRB. In contrast, other optical afterglows, such as those of GRB 990123, GRB 021211, GRB 060111B, GRB 060117, GRB 061126, and recently GRB 080319B, show a steep-to-flat transition within first 10^3 s typical of a rapidly evolving reverse + fo…
Long gamma-ray bursts (GRB), explosions of very massive stars, provide crucial information on stellar and galaxy evolution, even at redshifts z ~ 8 - 9.5, when the Universe was only 500-600 million years old. Recently, during observations of a galaxy at a redshift of z ~ 11 (400 million years after the Big Bang), a bright signal, named GN-z11-flash, shorter than 245 s was detected and interpreted as an ultraviolet flash associated with a GRB in this galaxy, or a shock-breakout in a Population III supernova. Its resulting luminosity would be consistent with that of other GRBs, but a discussion …
As part of the Transient UV Objects project, we have discovered a new outburst (at the beginning of October 2020) of the candidate cataclysmic variable (CV) ASASSN-18eh using the UV/Optical Telescope aboard the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. During the outburst its brightness increased by about 6 mag in UV compared to its brightness in the quiescent state. The properties of this outburst are consistent with it being a dwarf nova, strongly supporting the CV nature of ASASSN-18eh.
We present and discuss ultraviolet and optical photometry from the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope and X-ray limits from the X-Ray Telescope on Swift and imaging polarimetry and ultraviolet/optical spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope of ASASSN-15lh. It has been classified as a hydrogen-poor superluminous supernova (SLSN I) more luminous than any other supernova observed. ASASSN-15lh is not detected in the X-rays in individual or coadded observations. From the polarimetry we determine that the explosion was only mildly asymmetric. We find the flux of ASASSN-15lh to increase strongly into…
The reverse shock (RS) model is generally introduced to interpret the optical afterglows with the rapid rising and decaying, such as the early optical afterglow of GRB 990123 (which is also called optical flash). In this paper, we collected 11 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) early optical afterglows, which have such signatures of dominant RS emission. Since the temporal slopes of the optical flashes are determined by both the medium density distribution index $k$ and the electron spectral index $p$, we apply the RS model of the thin shell case to the optical flashes and determine the ambient medium of…
For an unsteady baryonic gamma-ray burst (GRB) outflow, the fast and slow proton shells collide with each other and produce energetic soft gamma-ray emission. If the outflow has a significant neutron component, the ultra-relativistic neutrons initially expand freely until decaying at a larger radius. The late time proton shells ejected from the GRB central engine, after powering the regular internal shocks, will sweep these $β-$decay products and give rise to very bright UV/optical emission. The naked-eye optical flash from GRB 080319B, an energetic explosion in the distant universe, can be we…
We present 1500 cycles of hydrogen shell flashes on a 1.38 M_sun white dwarf (WD) for a mass accretion rate of 1.6 x 10^{-7} M_sun yr^{-1}, the mass ejection of which is calculated consistently with the optically thick winds. This model mimics the one-year-recurrence-period nova M31N 2008-12a. Through these hydrogen flashes a helium ash layer grows in mass and eventually triggers a helium nova outburst. Each hydrogen flash is almost identical and there is no precursor for the forthcoming He flash either in the outburst or in the quiescent until the next He flash suddenly occurs. Thus, M31N 200…
Recently Jiang et al. reported the discovery of a possible short duration transient, detected in a single image, spatially associated with a z~11 galaxy. Jiang et al. and Kahn et al. suggested the transient originates from a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB), while Padmanabhan & Loeb argued the flash is consistent with a supernova shock breakout event of a 300 M_sun population III star. Jiang et al. argued against the possibility that this event originated from light reflected off a satellite. Here we show that reflection of sunlight from a high-orbit satellite or a piece of space debris is a valid and re…
In Jiang et al. (2020), we reported a possible bright flash (hereafter GN-z11-flash) from a galaxy GN-z11 at z ~ 11. Recently, Steinhardt et al. (2021; arXiv:2101.12738) found 27 images with transient signals in Keck MOSFIRE archival data and claimed that GN-z11-flash was more likely from a moving object in our Solar system. We show that the Steinhardt et al.'s definition of the chance probability and their methodology of finding GN-z11-flash-like transients are problematic in several aspects. In particular, none of their transients is analogous to GN-z11-flash, and none of them is positionall…
We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of the nearby Type Ia SN 2019yvq, from its discovery $\sim$1 day after explosion to $\sim$100 days after its peak brightness. This SN exhibits several unusual features, most notably an extremely bright UV excess seen within $\sim$5 days of its explosion. As seen in Swift UV data, this early excess outshines its "peak" brightness, making this object more extreme than other SNe with early UV/blue excesses (e.g. iPTF14atg and SN 2017cbv). In addition, it was underluminous ($M_B=-18.4$), relatively quickly declining ($Δm_{15}(B)=1.35$), and sho…
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are a mysterious flash phenomenon detected in radio wavelengths with a duration of only a few milliseconds, and they may also have prompt gamma-ray flashes. Here we carry out a blind search for msec-duration gamma-ray flashes using the 7-year Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) all-sky gamma-ray data. About 100 flash candidates are detected, but after removing those associated with bright steady point sources, we find no flash events at high Galactic latitude region (|b|>20 deg). Events at lower latitude regions are consistent with statistical flukes originating fro…
We present optical and ultraviolet photometry, as well as optical spectra, for the type II supernova (SN) 2015bf. Our observations cover the phases from $\sim 2$ to $\sim 200$ d after explosion. The first spectrum is characterised by a blue continuum with a blackbody temperature of $\sim 24,000$K and flash-ionised emission lines. After about one week, the spectra of SN 2015bf evolve like those of a regular SN II. From the luminosity of the narrow emission component of H$α$, we deduce that the mass-loss rate is larger than $\sim 3.7\times10^{-3}\,{\rm M_\odot\,yr^{-1}}$. The disappearance of th…
We have studied long-term optical, ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray observations of OJ 287 collected with the UVOT and XRT instruments mounted on board the Swift satellite to quantify spectral and temporal variability patterns observed during different activity states. We characterized the flux variations using the data collected during almost 11 yr of the monitoring of the blazar. Significant variability of the blazar has been detected both in the flux and spectral index from the optical to X-ray regimes. We noted that the variability patterns observed in the optical range are more pronounced than …
In Jiang et al., we detected a bright flash (hereafter GN-z11-flash) that appeared as compact continuum emission during our Keck MOSFIRE observations of the galaxy GN-z11 at z ~ 11. We performed a comprehensive analysis of the origin of the flash using all available information and our current understanding of known man-made objects or moving objects in the solar system. We found that GN-z11-flash was likely a rest-frame UV flash associated with a long gamma-ray burst (GRB) from GN-z11. Recently, Steinhardt et al., Michalowski et al., and Nir et al. reported that GN-z11-flash was more likely f…
One of the most powerful gamma-ray bursts, GRB 130427A was swiftly detected from GeV $γ$-rays to optical wavelengths. In the GeV band, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope observed the highest-energy photon ever recorded of 95 GeV, and a bright peak in the early phase followed by emission temporally extended for more than 20 hours. In the optical band, a bright flash with a magnitude of $7.03\pm 0.03$ in the time interval from 9.31 s to 19.31 s after the trigger was reported by RAPTOR in r-band. We study the origin of the GeV $γ$-ray emission, using the m…
The brightest optical flash from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) was, briefly, a naked-eye object. Several other GRBs have produced optical transients only slightly fainter. We argue that, based upon the recently accumulated data from hundreds of GRB transients, many such optical events should have been visible to the unaided eye in the course of human history. The most likely repositories of such observations are historical records from the Orient, and we have located and discuss a number of candidates. We also consider the value of such observations, should any very likely ones be uncovered, to mode…
JANUS is a NASA small explorer class mission which just completed phase A and was intended for a 2013 launch date. The primary science goals of JANUS are to use high redshift (6<z<12) gamma ray bursts and quasars to explore the formation history of the first stars in the early universe and to study contributions to reionization. The X-Ray Flash Monitor (XRFM) and the Near-IR Telescope (NIRT) are the two primary instruments on JANUS. XRFM has been designed to detect bright X-ray flashes (XRFs) and gamma ray bursts (GRBs) in the 1-20 keV energy band over a wide field of view (4 steradians), thus…
Reflections from objects in Earth orbit can produce sub-second, star-like optical flashes similar to astrophysical transients. Reflections have historically caused false alarms for transient surveys, but the population has not been systematically studied. We report event rates for these orbital flashes using the Evryscope Fast Transient Engine, a low-latency transient detection pipeline for the Evryscopes. We select single-epoch detections likely caused by Earth satellites and model the event rate as a function of both magnitude and sky position. We measure a rate of $1800^{+600}_{-280}$ sky$^…
