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Main Authors: Perley, Daniel A., Ho, Anna Y. Q., McGrath, Zoë, Camilo, Michael, Sevilla, Cassie, Chen, Ping, Schroeder, Genevieve, Govreen-Segal, Taya, Bochenek, Aleksandra, Qin, Yu-Jing, Gillanders, James H., Amend, Benjamin, Anderson, Joseph P., Andreoni, Igor, Aryan, Amar, Bellm, Eric C., Bloom, Joshua S., de Boer, Thomas, Carney, Jonathan, Caiazzo, Ilaria, Chambers, Ken C., Charalampopoulos, Panos, Chen, Ting-Wan, Chen, Tracy X., Coughlin, Eric R., Coughlin, Michael, Dennefeld, Michel, Dimitriadis, Georgios, Fremling, Christoffer, Frostig, Danielle, Gal-Yam, Avishay, Galbany, Lluís, Gangopadhyay, Anjashay, Ghendrih, Melzie, Graham, Matthew J., Gromadzki, Mariusz, Groom, Steven L., Gutiérrez, Claudia P., Hinds, K. -Ryan, Huber, Mark E., Inserra, Cosimo, Kaiser, Benjamin C., Kasliwal, Mansi M., Koivisto, Niilo E., Lin, Chien-Cheng, Liu, Chang, Lowe, Thomas B., Magnier, Eugene, Mahabal, Ashish A., Milligan, Andrew, Minguez, Paloma, Mo, Geoffrey, Müller-Bravo, Tomás E., Nicholl, Matt, Pessi, Priscila J., Pignata, Giuliano, Purdum, Josiah, Rehemtulla, Nabeel, Rich, R. Michael, Sahu, Anwesha, Singh, Avinash, Smartt, Stephen J., Sollerman, Jesper, Srinivasaragavan, Gokul, Srivastav, Shubham, Stein, Robert D., Schulze, Steve, Tweddle, Jack W., Wainscoat, Richard, Wise, Jacob L., Yan, Lin, Young, David R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.03337
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Table of Contents:
  • We present the discovery of AT 2024wpp ("Whippet"), a fast and luminous 18cow-like transient. At a redshift of z=0.0868, revealed by Keck Cosmic Web Imager spectroscopy of its faint star-forming host, it is the fourth-nearest example of its class to date. Rapid identification of the source in the Zwicky Transient Facility data stream permitted ultraviolet-through-optical observations to be obtained prior to peak, allowing the first determination of the peak bolometric luminosity (2x10^45 erg/s), maximum photospheric radius (10^15 cm), and total radiated energy (10^51 erg) of an 18cow-like object. We present results from a comprehensive multiwavelength observing campaign, including a far-UV spectrum from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope and deep imaging extending >100 days post-explosion from the Very Large Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Very Large Array, and Atacama Large Millimetre Array. We interpret the observations under a model in which a rapidly-accreting central engine blows a fast (~0.2c) wind into the surrounding medium and irradiates it with X-rays. The high Doppler velocities and intense ionization within this wind prevent identifiable spectroscopic features from appearing in the ejecta or in the surrounding circumstellar material. Weak H and He signatures do emerge in the spectra after 35 days in the form of double-peaked narrow lines. Each peak is individually narrow (full width ~3000 km/s) but the two components are separated by ~6600 km/s, indicating stable structures of denser material, possibly representing streams of tidal ejecta or an ablated companion star.

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