Sightings2019

VASCO project begins searching old sky surveys for vanishing stars

When: 12 Dec 2019
Sources: 3 public sources

Transient glints on a 1950s POSS-I plate, the kind of object VASCO searches for Beatriz Villarroel et al., CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Astronomer Beatriz Villarroel and colleagues published the first paper of VASCO, a project comparing 1950s sky-survey records with modern surveys to find objects that appear to vanish. A 2021 follow-up reported nine short-lived point sources on one 1950 plate; their cause is debated.

Sources

OtherThe Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations Project. I. (Astronomical Journal 159:8) (opens in a new tab)The Astronomical Journal (IOP Publishing) / 2019-12-12
OtherThe Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations project: I (preprint) (opens in a new tab)arXiv / 2019-11
OtherExploring nine simultaneously occurring transients on April 12th 1950 (opens in a new tab)Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio) / 2021-06-17

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Where it fits

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