ASKAP J1832: Scientists discovers mysterious pulsating star in space
Scientists say they've spotted a mysterious object in space behaving in a very strange way.The star, which has been named ASKAP J1832, is acting unlike anything seen before, according to Nasa experts.Located around 15,000 light years from Earth, it is pulsing every 44 minutes.What's even more strange is that it is doing it with both radio waves and X-rays.
What did scientists find?
A team of astronomers looked at data from Nasa's space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Australia to study the discovered object, which has been called ASKAP J1832.They found that the star belongs to a class of objects called "long period radio transients" - that means it sends out radio waves of different levels over tens of minutes - in this case every 44 minutes.However, they also found that it is also sending X-rays every 44 minutes too.According to Nasa, this combination of factors is "unlike anything astronomers have seen in the Milky Way galaxy."Experts are trying to work out what type of object ASKAP J1832, however they think it might be one of two things.It could be a magnetar - which is a neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field, with an age of more than half a million years.Or it could also be possibly an unusual white dwarf star which has a companion star.
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