"Mystery Object" update: New infrared spectrum from the Keck telescope show it to be a peculiar BAL Quasar at a redshift of 1.2. This is exactly what we suspected (and tried to explain to every media person who called about it, but usually with little success). So, this object is no longer a mystery!

Available (twice as large) as: GIF , JPEG , TIFF , or Postscript	Available (twice as large) as: GIF , JPEG , TIFF , or Postscript	Available (twice as large) as: GIF , JPEG , TIFF , or Postscript

And for the curious, its spectrum (Postscript) or (GIF)

Images of the "mystery transient":
The discovery DPOSS image (top), and a zoom-in on the corresponding section of a much deeper image obtained at the Keck telescope (bottom):

Available (twice as large) as: GIF , JPEG , TIFF , or Postscript

For more info, please contact:
George Djorgovski, (626) 395-4415, george@oracle.caltech.edu
Robert Tindol, (626) 395-3631, tindol@caltech.edu