The event called the “space cow” is located at a distance of 180 million light years from Earth and roughly corresponds to our solar system, Novaya nauka (new science) writes.

The new data show that it is the flattest explosion ever seen, challenging our current perception of cosmic explosions as being mostly spherical. This discovery solves part of the mystery surrounding these strange explosions.

The bright astronomical transition, called AT2018cow, is the closest example of a rare phenomenon that scientists call a fast blue optical transient (FBOT). It was first observed in June 2018 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Hawaii. The event produced a sudden burst of light at least 10 times brighter than a typical supernova. Only four other similar transition processes have been discovered so far, and therefore scientists know very little about them.

Recent analysis of the polarized light from AT2018cow has shown that this explosion is the most aspheric one ever seen in space; the disk-like shape appeared a few days after its discovery.

In other words, they're weird, and this new observation makes them even weirder, says Justyn Maund., a researcher at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield and lead author of the study detailing this discovery.

These data have made it possible to reconstruct the event in 3D and show its edges very precisely. Maund and colleagues noted a very high degree of flatness. Starbursts, the most common explosions in the universe, are almost always spherical, as the stars themselves are spherical, and therefore such an extremely flattened shape is surprising.

FBOTs are extremely bright, 10 to 100 times brighter than some of the brightest supernovae. They appear suddenly and disappear just as quickly; this distinguishes them from ordinary starbursts.

Unlike normal supernovae, there are no radioactive elements that can power the luminary, so the energy must come from somewhere else, Maund adds.