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Astronomers are surprised to observe an abnormal energy source
Scientists say that it may be a neutron star or a white dwarf with a super-strong field of attraction.
The team specializing in radio waves in the Universe has found something unusual that provides an immense burst of energy three times an hour and is unlike anything seen before.
In the rotating process in space, the object transmits an emission of light that crosses the vision. After every twenty minutes, it is one of the few brightest radio sources in the sky for one minute.
Dr. Natasha Hurley-Walker, an astrophysicist at the International Radio Astronomy Research Center at Curtin University in Australia, led the group.
Hurley-Walker commented that this item appeared and disappeared for a couple of hours during the observations, thus being unforeseen.
He also stated that for an expert in space, it was something creepy because no object in the sky was known to do that. He assured us that it is about 4,000 light-years away, very close to Earth.
Tyrone O'Doherty, an honor's student at Curtin University, was the one who discovered the strange object using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in the interior of Western Australia and another strategy created by him.
Tyrone exclaimed that it's exciting that the source he acknowledged last year turned out to be an especially curious article. He also admits that he is currently doing a doctorate at Curtin.
He insists that the MWA's wide field of view and high sensitivity are ideal for observing the entire sky and distinguishing the most unexpected.
Transitory objects are space.
These objects turning on and off in space are not a new topic for cosmologists. They know them as transitory.
Dr. Gemma Andersono, the astrophysicist at ICRAR-Curtin and co-creator of the study, comments that, when studying transients, you can see how a massive star dies and the activity of its remains when this happens.
In this way, slow transients (or supernovae) can appear rapidly in a few days, as they can disappear over many months. Like neutron stars, pulsar, fast transients usually turn off and on in milliseconds.
Specialist Anderson assures that discovering this object that lights up for a minute is strange.
As she noticed this unimaginably bright object much smaller than the Sun transmitting deeply polarized radio waves, she suggested that this object has a solid and attractive field.
Dr. Hurley-Walker clarifies that the insights are consistent with a previous astrophysics paper called "ultra-long-period magnetar."
This type of neutron star has a prolonged spinning process and has been anticipated to exist. However, no one expected to directly identify one like this, as they didn't think they were that bright.
One way or another, it transforms the energy of attraction into radio waves much more efficiently than anything that has ever been observed before.
Waiting for a new appearance
Hurley-Walker is currently observing the object with the MWA to see if it turns back on. He added that should that happen; there are telescopes all over the south side of the equator and an orbit that can point directly at it.
He also plans to search for these rare items in the MWA's massive documents.
More discoveries will let stargazers know if this is a rare, unique occasion or a significant new population that has never been seen before.
