The object, known as ASKAP J1832-0911, emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays for two minutes every 44 minutes.
The team discovered ASKAP J1832-0911 by using the ASKAP radio telescope on Wajarri Country in Australia, owned and operated by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO.
“The ASKAP radio telescope has a wide field view of the night sky, while Chandra observes only a fraction of it.
Detecting these objects using both X-rays and radio waves may help astronomers find more examples and learn more about them.
ASKAP J1832-0911 is located in our Milky Way galaxy about 15,000 light-years from Earth.
In cooperation with international teams, astronomers from the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have made a shocking discovery regarding a novel kind of cosmic phenomenon.
Every 44 minutes, the object, designated ASKAP J1832-0911, emits two-minute radio wave and X-ray pulses.
“Detection of X-ray Emission from a Bright Long-Period Radio Transient,” the relevant paper, has been published in the journal Nature.
Such objects are known as long-period transients (LPTs) and have been found in X-rays for the first time. Scientists anticipate that it will shed light on the origins of other enigmatic signals seen throughout the sky.
Using the ASKAP radio telescope on Australia’s Wajarri Country, which is owned and run by CSIRO, the country’s national scientific agency, the team found ASKAP J1832-0911. They compared the radio signals to X-ray pulses that NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was also observing the same area of the sky, had picked up.
“It was like finding a needle in a haystack to learn that ASKAP J1832-0911 was emitting X-rays,” lead author Dr. Ziteng (Andy) Wang of the Curtin University ICRAR node said.
The ASKAP radio telescope can observe a large portion of the night sky, whereas Chandra can only see a small portion of it. Therefore, Chandra’s simultaneous observations of the same region of the night sky were fortunate. “..”.
LPTs are a relatively new discovery, emitting radio pulses spaced minutes or hours apart. Around the world, astronomers have found ten LPTs since ICRAR researchers first detected them in 2022.
Why these signals “switch on” and “switch off” at such long, regular, and unusual intervals does not yet have a clear explanation.
Dr. Dot Wang remarked, “This object is unlike anything we have seen before,”.
ASKAP J1831-0911 may be a magnetar, which is the core of a dead star with strong magnetic fields, or it may be a binary system consisting of two stars, one of which is a highly magnetized white dwarf, which is a low-mass star nearing the end of its life cycle. “,”.
But even those theories fall short in explaining what we are seeing. New models of stellar evolution or a new kind of physics could be suggested by this discovery. “.
Finding more examples and learning more about these objects may be made possible by detecting them with both radio waves and X-rays.
Second author Professor Nanda Rea of the Catalan Institute for Space Studies (IEEC) and the Institute of Space Science (ICE-CSIC) in Spain states: “The discovery of one such object suggests the presence of numerous others. Its transient X-ray emission has been discovered, providing new information about their enigmatic nature. “,”.
In addition, she stated, “this study demonstrates an amazing collaborative effort, with contributions from researchers worldwide with diverse and complementary expertise.”.
Additionally, the discovery aids in identifying the possible objects. Given that the nature of X-rays is still a cosmic mystery, any theory must take into consideration both forms of emission because they have a far higher energy than radio waves.
Approximately 15,000 light-years from Earth, in our Milky Way galaxy, is ASKAP J1832-0911.
