A clear starry night is deceptively tranquil to backyard sky gazers. In reality the sky is ablaze with things that go pop in the night – like paparazzi flash cameras going off. Most of these flashes are stellar explosions or collisions. They are so faint they can only be captured by the unblinking eye of telescopes that continually keep watch on the nighttime sky for such transients.

Among the rarest of these random cosmic events are a small class called Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOTs). They shine intensely in blue light and evolve rapidly, reaching peak brightness and fading again in a matter of days, unlike supernovae which take weeks or months to dim.

The first LFBOT was found in 2018. Presently, they are captured once a year and so only a handful are known. There are several theories behind what causes the powerful explosions. But Hubble came along and made this phenomenon even more mysterious.

One LFBOT popped up in 2023 in a place where no one expected it be – far between two galaxies. Only Hubble could exactly pinpoint its surprising location. If a flavor of extraordinarily powerful supernovae cause LFBOTs, they should blow up in the spiral arms of galaxies where star birth is underway. The massive newborn stars behind supernovae don't live long enough to go wandering off beyond their nesting ground inside a galaxy.

Astronomers agree that more LFBOTs need to be discovered so that theoreticians can better characterize the population of these elusive transient events.