CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have found a wierd new object in our Milky Way galaxy.
A global workforce reported Wednesday that this celestial object — maybe a star, pair of stars or one thing else fully — is emitting X-rays across the similar time it’s taking pictures out radio waves. What’s extra, the cycle repeats each 44 minutes, no less than in periods of utmost exercise.
Situated 15,000 light-years away in a area of the Milky Way brimming with stars, fuel and dirt, this object may very well be a extremely magnetized useless star like a neutron or white dwarf, Curtin College’s Ziteng Andy Wang stated in an electronic mail from Australia.
Or it may very well be “one thing unique” and unknown, stated Wang, lead writer of the examine printed within the journal Nature.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory noticed the X-ray emissions by likelihood final 12 months whereas specializing in a supernova remnant, or the stays of an exploded star. Wang stated it was the primary time X-rays had been seen coming from a so-called long-period radio transient, a uncommon object that cycles by way of radio alerts over tens of minutes.
Given the unsure distance, astronomers cannot inform if the bizarre object is related to the supernova remnant or not. A single light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.
The hyperactive part of this object — designated ASKAP J1832−091 — appeared to final a few month. Exterior of that interval, the star didn’t emit any noticeable X-rays. That might imply extra of those objects could also be on the market, scientists stated.
“Whereas our discovery doesn’t but resolve the thriller of what these objects are and should even deepen it, finding out them brings us nearer to 2 potentialities,” Wang stated. “Both we’re uncovering one thing fully new, or we’re seeing a identified kind of object emitting radio and X-ray waves in a approach we’ve by no means noticed earlier than.”
Launched in 1999, Chandra orbits tens of 1000’s of miles (kilometers) above Earth, observing among the hottest, high-energy objects within the universe.
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