The unidentified space thing called "
2018Cow":
is a powerful astronomical explosion (discovery magnitude 14.739; redshift 0.014145), 10-100 times brighter than a normal supernova,[3][4][5] spatially coincident with galaxy CGCG 137-068, approximately 200 million ly (60 million pc) distant in the Hercules constellation. It was first detected on 16 June 2018 at 10:35:02 UTC by the ATLAS-HKO telescope at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.[1] The explosion, with a surface temperature of over 8,900 °C (16,000 °F; 9,200 K) and traveling 20,000 km/s (12,000 mi/s),[4] may be a cataclysmic variable star (CV), gamma-ray burst (GRB), gravitational wave (GW), supernova (SN), or something else.[1][5][6][7][8][9] According to astronomer Kate Maguire of Queen's University Belfast: "It really just appeared out of nowhere. There are other objects that have been discovered that are as fast, but the fastness and the brightness, that's quite unusual."[7]
It was first discovered on Shabbat Parashat Korah. Even on Tuesday of Parashat Hukat,
someone commented:
Spectrum: very blue
This morning (19-06-2018) I have taken some spectra of the object: it is very blue and seems to continue around the magnitude determined yesterday. I can appreciate a strong asymmetry in its spectral profile: in the Spectral Distribution of Energy the maximum is in the blue sector, as can be seen in the attached image.
And on
Friday of Parashat Hukat:
The source remains very blue in UV-optical colors.
However, a few days ago,
Astronomer's Telegram noted that:
The spectrum and broadband optical colors have become slowly redder.
It is quite interesting that it started slowly becoming redder during or right after Shabbat Parashat Hukat, where we read about the Parah Aduma (red heifer) used to purify those who have become impure due to contact with - or other means of transference of impurity from - a dead body.
Parashat Balak talks about דרך כוכב מיעקב, referring to the coming of Mashiah. The word מיעקב has the gematria of 222 - the number of years from this year - 5778 - until the end of the millennium.
May the "cow" seen in space foretell the arrival of a real red cow that can be used to help purify us, and the coming of Mashiah, Amen.
