Mysterious Cosmic Detonations  is the title of an article in the latest issue of  Scientific American  and the first one was named "the Cow." In 2018 a massive cosmic explosion made its way to us as a bright flash of blue, from a later-designated AT2018cow portion of the sky.  Thus, "the Cow." More scientifically, this outburst is now called a  Fast Blue Optical Transient  ( FBOT ). Initially there was some belief it was a supernova. Since then a few more have been found. But exactly what has confounded astrophysicists. How does a Cow compare with a  gamma-ray burst  ( GRB ) or a supernova? GRBs  were discovered serendipitously in 1967 by Air Force satellite Velas on the lookout for Soviet  nuclear testing violations. The satellites also carry a gamma-ray detector because nuclear explosions produce gamma rays.  But this glaring light came from outer space beyond our universe. This was the mystery of those days until scientists determined they came from the collapse