It could be an ultra-long period magnetar, predicted by astrophysical theories but never found so far. It is 4,000 light-years away from us
A group of Australian astronomers has identified 4,000 light-years away from Earth, in the Milky Way, a rotating object that resembles nothing hitherto known: three times every hour (every 18 minutes and 10 seconds, to be precise) emits an intense pulse in the radio frequency of long duration, about 60 seconds. In these moments it becomes one of the brightest sources in our galaxy.
Similar pulsating objects have been documented multiple times in the Universe, but none capable of emitting a constant frequency for such a long duration.
The discovery
The first report was made by an astronomy student at Curtin University, Tyrone O’Doherty, thanks to the Murchison Widefield Array low frequency radio telescope, composed of 4,096 spider-shaped antennas arranged in 256 regular grids, located in a remote region of Western Australia, and a new technique he developed.
The study, published in Nature, was led by Natasha Hurley-Walker. “This object seemed to appear and disappear over the course of a few hours during our observations,” said the scientist. “It is something strange for an astronomer, because there is nothing known in the sky that behaves this way.”
Neutron stars
Similar items are due to last stages of life of massive stars that explode in supernovae or what remains of them, such as neutron stars. The latter, however, known as pulsar, emit radio frequencies in very fast pulses: between a second and a few thousandths of a second. Certainly not lasting a minute.
According to Dr. Hurley-Walker, the mysterious object is very bright, smaller than the sun, has a very intense magnetic field and emits highly polarized radio waves.
New type of magnetar
The observations made are compatible with the ultra-long period magnetar, predicted by astrophysical theories but never found so far. “It’s a very slowly spinning type of neutron star that was theoretically predicted to exist, but no one expected to see one that bright. Some mechanism transforms magnetic energy into radio waves much more efficiently than previously seen. We must continue with the observations and studies, ”said Hurley-Walker, who had already communicated the discovery of this strange stellar object on September 14th in a virtual seminar.
January 27, 2022 (change January 27, 2022 | 11:30 am)
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