Last June, astronomers noticed the appearance of a mysterious bright object in the constellation of Hercules. It remained visible for a little over two weeks, during which time they dubbed it ‘the Cow’. Now, scientists investigating the phenomenon believe that what astronomers witnessed was the formation of a black hole or a neutron star. When stars burn off all their energy, they either explode in a nova or supernova, or collapse to form a white dwarf, a neutron star or a black hole, depending on their mass. When the Cow was spotted, astronomers thought the bright light must be coming from a supernova. But the Cow burned faster and brighter than any previously observed supernova, so a team led by Dr Raffaella Margutti of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics at Northwestern University in Illinois decided to investigate further.
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