An unusual type of stellar object that emits radio waves has been discovered

Astronomers have discovered a new type of stellar object that could change their understanding of extreme celestial bodies in the universe. Writes about it CNN.

Initially, Curtin University doctoral student Tyrone O’Doherty spotted a spinning celestial space object in March 2018. The unfamiliar object emitted gigantic bursts of energy and emitted radiation three times per hour.

In those moments, it became the brightest source of radio waves visible from Earth through radio telescopes, acting as a celestial beacon.

The researchers thought the phenomenon might be the remnant of a collapsing star — a dense neutron star or a dead white dwarf — with a strong magnetic field. Or perhaps the object was something completely different.

After releasing a study describing the observation in January 2022, O’Doherty and a team of astronomers at the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research or ICRAR node at Curtin University in Australia began looking for another example.

“We were at an impasse,” said Dr. Natasha Hurley-Walker, senior lecturer at ICRAR at Curtin University, “so we started looking for similar objects to find out if this was an isolated event or just the tip of the iceberg.”

The team observed the sky with the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope in outback Western Australia between July and September 2022.

Scientists have discovered an object 15,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scutum. The object, dubbed GPM J1839-10, emitted radio waves every 22 minutes. The bursts of energy lasted up to five minutes.

Astronomers believe it could be a magnetar, or a rare type of star with extremely strong magnetic fields capable of emitting powerful bursts of energy. But if the object is a magnetar, it defies description, because all known magnetars release energy within a few seconds, or at most a few minutes.

A study detailing the discovery was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

“This remarkable object challenges our understanding of neutron stars and magnetars, which are among the most exotic and extreme objects in the universe,” said Hurley-Walker, who was the lead author of the new report.

Other ground-based and space-based telescopes were used for follow-up observations of the newly discovered object, including the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa and the XMM-Newton space telescope.