Bibcode
Filho, M. E.; Sánchez Almeida, J.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 478, Issue 2, p.2541-2556
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8
2018
Citations
3
Refereed citations
3
Description
We have serendipitously discovered that Leoncino Dwarf, an ultrafaint,
low-metallicity record-holder dwarf galaxy, may have hosted a transient
source, and possibly exhibited a change in morphology, a shift in the
centre of brightness, and peak variability of the main (host) source in
images taken approximately 40 yr apart; it is highly likely that these
phenomena are related. Scenarios involving a Solar System object, a
stellar cluster, dust enshrouding, and accretion variability have been
considered, and discarded, as the origin of the transient. Although a
combination of time-varying strong and weak lensing effects, induced by
an intermediate-mass black hole (104-5 × 105
M⊙) moving within the Milky Way halo ( 0.1-4 kpc), can
conceivably explain all of the observed variable galaxy properties, it
is statistically highly unlikely according to current theoretical
predictions, and, therefore, also discarded. A cataclysmic event such as
a supernova/hypernova could have occurred, as long as the event was
observed towards the later/late-stage descent of the light curve, but
this scenario fails to explain the absence of a post-explosion source
and/or host H II region in recent optical images. An episode related to
the giant eruption of a luminous blue variable star, a stellar merger or
a nova, observed at, or near, peak magnitude may explain the transient
source and possibly the change in morphology/centre of brightness, but
cannot justify the main source peak variability, unless stellar
variability is evoked.
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Casiana
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