Astronomers Discover Unique Star Emitting Unusual Signals

Science

Astronomers Discover Unique Star Emitting Unusual Signals

6 months ago

News sources:

CHANNELNEWSASIA 2

REUTERS

DAWN

Astronomers Discover Unique Star Emitting Unusual Signals

Credited from: REUTERS

Astronomers have identified a unique star in the Milky Way galaxy.
The star, flashing every 44 minutes, emits both radio waves and X-rays.
It belongs to a new class of celestial objects known as "long-period radio transients."
Researchers are exploring whether the star is a magnetar or a white dwarf in a binary system.
This star is the only one of its class detected so far that produces X-rays.

Astronomers have spotted a star acting unlike any other observed, emitting a curious combination of radio waves and X-rays. This exotic star is situated approximately 15,000 light-years from Earth towards the constellation Scutum and flashes every 44 minutes. This celestial object is identified as part of a class called "long-period radio transients," which is known for bright bursts of radio waves that manifest every few minutes to several hours, much longer than the rapid pulses detected from typical pulsars, which blink on and off within milliseconds to seconds, according to Channel News Asia, Reuters, Dawn.

Reuters and Dawn.

Theoretical explanations for the object's unique emissions could point to its identity as either a magnetar—a neutron star with an intense magnetic field—or a white dwarf, a compact stellar remnant in a binary system orbiting a small companion star. However, researchers note that neither hypothesis fully explains all the observational features they have detected. Typically, stars up to eight times the mass of our sun transition into a white dwarf stage, where they exhaust all hydrogen fuel, collapse, and shed their outer layers, according to Channel News Asia and Dawn.

Dawn and Reuters.