A group of astronomers has found strange bursts that defy all knowledge we have about them. Curtin University researchers at the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) They have discovered a strange rotating object in the Milky Way about 4,000 light years away. This object sent out a giant blast of polarized radio energy for a full minute every 18 minutes, and appeared and disappeared in the course of a few hours of observations; for context, a pulsar’s outburst lasts a few seconds or less.
This object is smaller than the Sun, but it is one of the brightest radio emitters in the sky during its bursts. The disappearances were also unique from what we usually see.
These bursts may be due to a phenomenon that had not been found before known as ultra-long-period magnetar. That is to say, it is a neutron star spinning at a relatively slow rate. Even if that’s the case, though, scientists want to know why the object is converting magnetic energy into radio waves at such an efficient rate. It could also be a white dwarf with an unusually strong magnetic field, or something else entirely.