Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery about a mysterious cosmic object that pulses with both radio waves and X-rays. The object, named ASKAP J1832-0911, sends out bursts of radio waves and X-rays that last two minutes and repeat every 44 minutes. Located 15,000 light-years from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy, this phenomenon is unlike anything seen before.
The discovery was made thanks to a rare cosmic coincidence involving two telescopes on opposite sides of the Earth. The ASKAP radio telescope in Australia detected radio bursts, while NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory picked up X-ray flashes coming from the same location. This overlap suggests that there may be many more such objects waiting to be found.
The object is classified as a long-period transient (LPT), which was first detected by ICRAR researchers in 2022. Since then, ten LPTs have been discovered globally. The cause of these signals remains unknown, and theories range from magnetars to binary star systems with highly magnetized white dwarfs.
Detecting both X-rays and radio waves may help astronomers uncover more examples of these objects and learn more about them. The discovery highlights the importance of international teamwork and cooperation in astronomical research. As lead author Dr. Ziteng Wang notes, “This object is unlike anything we have seen before,” and further study may reveal new physics or models of stellar life cycles.
The study’s findings also suggest that these objects might be hiding clues in their high-energy emissions, which could help unlock the secrets behind other mysterious signals in the universe.
Source: https://scitechdaily.com/15000-light-years-away-something-is-blinking-and-it-might-rewrite-physics