Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Scientists detected an incredibly dense Star that is acting in a unique way. It’s thought to be a kind of unusual astrophysical object whose existence had been only hypothesised.

According to researchers, the three-minute bursts in energy were unleashed by the object when it was viewed from Earth in 2018 during Murchison Widefield Array’s outback Western Australia telescope.

They believe it may have been the first example of an “ultralong period magnetar”. This neutron-star type is the compacted core from a huge star that burst as a supernova. It’s highly magnetic and rotates very slowly. In contrast to fast-spinning neutron-star objects, called pulsars which appear blinking in seconds or milliseconds on Earth, this variety is extremely magnetized.

Lead author for the Nature study, Natasha Hurley Walker (Radio Astronomer) at Curtin University in Australia said that “it’s mind-bogglingly amazing that the universe still has many surprises.”

Strong radio waves may have been continuously being sent by the object’s north and south poles. It appeared that the beam was moving through Earth’s view point and switching on at intervals of 18 to 11 seconds. Then it would switch off for 30 to 60 seconds. This effect is similar to the lighthouse’s rotating light, which appears to flash on and off depending on where you are looking.

This was done as part of a larger research project mapping celestial radio wave sources.

Hurley-Walker stated, “This is an entirely different kind of source than anyone has seen before.” While we all know that there must be many slowly spinning neutron star in the Milky Way, nobody expected them to emit bright radio waves like this. This is truly a miracle.

The location of the satellite is relatively near Earth cosmically, approximately 4,200 lightyears – that’s how far light travels per year. It covers 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

It’s extremely bright when it’s on. “It’s one the brightest radio source in the sky,” Tyrone O’Doherty (a Curtin ICRAR doctoral student) said about the object.

This falls under the “transient” category, which is a group of astrophysical objects with limited time turning on. Supernovas can appear suddenly and disappear several months later when the star explosion has dissipated. Pulsars can blink fast and flash on-and-off, making them “fast transients.” Up to now, transients in between these extremes have been difficult to find.

    Neutron stars including pulsars are among the universe’s densest objects. Their diameter is approximately 7.5 miles (12km) and their mass is greater than that of the sun. Researchers believe that a neutron star, with its extreme magnetic field (a magnetar), could power radio pulsations. 

According to Gemma Anderson, Curtin ICRAR researcher and co-author of the study, why is it so slow?

Anderson stated that it is more probable for this to be the “first of its kind” than the “one-of-a-kind”.

Hurley Walker suggested it might also be an unknown type of dead star known as a white dwarf.

Since 2018, the researchers haven’t been able to detect it.

Anderson stated, “We are currently monitoring the object with many radio telescopes in hopes it switches on again.”