Astronomers identify curious occurrence of star-like objects on old photographic plate - THE WEEK

Astronomers are comparing old images of the night sky with new ones.

An international collaboration of astronomers has identified a curious occurrence of nine star-like objects that appeared and vanished in a small region within half an hour on an old photographic plate.

Astronomers collaborating across countries track vanishing and appearing celestial objects by comparing old images of the night sky with new, modern ones, register unnatural phenomena and probe deep into such phenomena to record changes in the universe.

The astronomers, who belong to the collaboration Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO), have still not sorted out the root cause of the "nine simultaneous transients"