A mysterious cosmic object is sending pulses of radio and X-ray waves to Earth every 44 minutes, leaving astronomers baffled and eager for answers.
Astronomers have discovered a cosmic anomaly that's throwing out pulses of radio waves and X-rays every 44 minutes, and they're stumped. Dubbed ASKAP J1832-0911, the object was detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, and it's unlike anything seen before.
"This object is unlike anything we have seen before," said Andy Wang, an astronomer at Curtin University and lead author of a new study published in Nature. "ASKAP J1832-0911 could be a magnetar or a pair of stars in a binary system with a highly magnetised white dwarf. However, even those theories don't fully explain what we are observing."
The discovery places ASKAP J1832-0911 in a rare class of astrophysical phenomena known as long-period transients (LPTs) -- cosmic lighthouses that emit radio waves at intervals of minutes or even hours. Unlike traditional pulsars, which release bursts of radio signals every few seconds or milliseconds, LPTs have been a cosmic mystery since their first detection in 2022. Only ten have been catalogued so far.
What sets ASKAP J1832-0911 apart is its dual emission of radio and X-ray signals. The Chandra observatory's confirmation of X-rays from an LPT marks a first in astronomical observations, offering a potential breakthrough in understanding these enigmatic objects. "Discovering that ASKAP J1832-0911 was emitting X-rays felt like finding a needle in a haystack," Wang said.
Nanda Rea, a co-author from the Catalan Institute for Space Studies in Spain, suggested that this find hints at a broader population of similar objects. "Finding one such object hints at the existence of many more," Rea said. "The discovery of its transient X-ray emission opens fresh insights into their mysterious nature."
As researchers prepare for more observations with radio and X-ray telescope pairs, the hope is to unlock new models of stellar evolution or even unearth physics that we've yet to understand.