Description
The long unexplored fast optical sky is now accessible thanks to new large ground-based telescopes
and new generation instruments. Studying it may lead to new discoveries, but it is also challenging
due to optical pollution.
In this talk, I will present our preliminary results obtained from an automated search and characterization
of mysterious Fast (millisecond) Optical Bursts (FOBs) in about 400 hours of observation
with the fast photometer SiFAP2 at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo.
Using a Bayesian Blocks–based algorithm we developed, we found a surprisingly high rate of 2
FOBs per hour. Our analysis suggests that many of these bursts likely have a non-astrophysical
origin. However, maybe some bursts show marginally significant evidence to the contrary.