Supports· moderateTRN-E007
The July 1952 triple transient and its deep follow-up
- what the source states
- Three optically bright (~16 mag) point sources within 10 arcsec of each other appear on one Palomar exposure of 1952 July 19 and vanished within the hour, based on two consecutive exposures; they remain absent in 71 years of subsequent imaging, including 2023 Gran Telescopio Canarias exposures reaching magnitude 25.5, implying dimming of more than 10 magnitudes within an hour. The most isolated of the three has a profile nearly the same as comparison stars, implying sub-arcsecond angular size and no elongation from movement.
- what we infer
- A second canonical multi-source event, peer reviewed with modern follow-up. Note the internal tension it creates: these profiles look like stars, while the 1950 nine are distinctly sharper — the canonical events are not morphologically uniform, which any single-mechanism explanation (defect or flash) must eventually accommodate.
- limitations
- Proponent-team report on the same digitized Palomar lineage; no published physical inspection of the 1952 plate material.