Latest news with #DrZitengWang
Forbes
3 days ago
- General
- Forbes
44-Minute Pulse From Mystery Star Baffles Scientists — What To Know
Scientists have discovered a star behaving like no other seen before, giving new clues about the ... More origin of a class of mysterious objects. This object, known as ASKAP J1832, shows regular changes in both radio wave and X-ray intensity every 44 minutes, the first time such variations have been seen for a class of objects discovered only three years ago. Scientists have discovered a unique star 15,000 light-years from the solar system that appears to pulse every 44.2 minutes. Separate data from NASA's orbital Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Square Kilometer Array radio telescope in Western Australia found the star — named ASKAP J1832 — in 2024, according to the paper published today in Nature. The star is what astronomers call a long-period radio transient, which they have detected since 2022. However, this is the first time such an object has also been observed to emit X-rays. X-ray emission is high-energy electromagnetic radiation, which Earth's atmosphere blocks. Both the radio and X-ray pulses are tightly aligned in phase, so they must be coming from the same object. 'Astronomers have looked at countless stars with all kinds of telescopes, and we've never seen one that acts this way,' said Dr Ziteng Wang, first author of the paper, from the Curtin University node at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia. 'It's thrilling to see a new type of behavior for stars.' Scientists have discovered a star behaving like no other seen before, giving new clues about the ... More origin of a class of mysterious objects. This object, known as ASKAP J1832, shows regular changes in both radio wave and X-ray intensity every 44 minutes, the first time such variations have been seen for a class of objects discovered only three years ago. Long-period radio transients vary in the intensity of their radio waves in a regular way over tens of minutes, but this is by far the longest ever found. The discovery suggests that these strange objects can be significantly more energetic than previously believed. First observed in February 2024, ASKAP J1832 dropped in intensity in both radio waves and X-rays over the following six months, becoming 1,000 times fainter by August 2024. What exactly ASKAP J1832 is remains a mystery. The transient likely harbors a compact object, possibly an ultra-magnetized white dwarf (the dense core left by a star that has exhausted its fuel) or an old magnetar (the extremely dense remnant of a star that has exploded as a supernova). However, scientists cannot fully explain either origin. 'We looked at several different possibilities involving neutron stars and white dwarfs, either in isolation or with companion stars,' said co-author Dr Nanda Rea of the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain. 'So far, nothing exactly matches up, but some ideas work better than others.' Scientists have discovered a star behaving like no other seen before, giving new clues about the ... More origin of a class of mysterious objects. This object, known as ASKAP J1832, shows regular changes in both radio wave and X-ray intensity every 44 minutes, the first time such variations have been seen for a class of objects discovered only three years ago. ASKAP J1832 appears to be within a supernova remnant, but the researchers think that's a coincidence, so it may not be a magnetar. It may be a white dwarf star with a companion star, but only if it had the strongest magnetic field ever known for a white dwarf. 'We will continue to hunt for clues about what is happening with this object, and we'll look for similar objects,' said co-author Dr Tong Bao of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera in Italy. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Something is flashing at us from space – and scientists have no idea what it is
Scientists have been left stunned by a mysterious, regular signal that is flashing at us from deep in space. The new type of cosmic phenomenon has only become more mysterious with further examination, scientists say. The object in question is known as ASKAP J1832-0911 and sends out pulses of radio waves and X-rays. It does so on a regular schedule: for two minutes, every 44 minutes. It was found with an Australian telescope that spotted radio signals coming from a specific part of space. Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory was coincidentally looking at that same part of space – and found that the object was emitting X-rays as well as radio pulses. It is the first time that one of these mysterious objects, known as an LPT, has been spotted sending out X-rays as well as radio signals. The researchers on a new study say that the object is 'unlike anything we have seen before' and that it could be an unknown kind of object or even a new type of physics. LPTs, or long-period transients, were first found in 2022, and researchers have spotted ten of them since. They send out radio pulses in regular bursts that are minutes or hours apart. Researchers don't know what the object at the heart of them might be. There is no explanation for either what the signal is or why it is flashing in such a regular way. 'This object is unlike anything we have seen before,' Dr Ziteng (Andy) Wang from Curtin University. 'ASKAP J1831-0911 could be a magnetar (the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields), or it could be a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetised white dwarf (a low-mass star at the end of its evolution).' 'However, even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing. This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution.' Scientists hope that the discovery that the object is emitting X-rays too could help give some insight on where the signals are coming from and how they work. The work is reported in a new paper, 'Detection of X-ray Emission from a Bright Long-Period Radio Transient', published in the journal Nature.
