Unusual, Duplicating Radio Signal Near the Facility of the Galaxy Has Scientists Puzzled

It is not a quick radio ruptured, a pulsar, or low-mass star. So what in the heavens is it?

Astronomers have found an unusual, repeating radio signal near the center of the Milky Way, and also it differs from any other energy signature ever studied.

According to a new paper approved for publication in The Astrophysical Journal and uploaded on the preprint web server arXiv, the energy source is incredibly unstable, appearing bright in the radio range for weeks and after that entirely vanishing within a day. This behavior does not quite resemble the profile of any well-known kind of celestial body, the researchers wrote in their work, as well as therefore may represent “a new class of objects being discovered via radio imaging.”

The radio source– referred to as ASKAP J173608.2 − 321635– was found with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope, located in the remote Australian wilderness. In an ASKAP study taken between April 2019 and August 2020, the unusual signal appeared 13 times, never staying in the sky for more than a few weeks, the scientists wrote. This radio source is extremely variable, appearing and disappearing without any foreseeable schedule, and also does not seem to appear in any other radio telescope data before the ASKAP study.

When the researchers attempted to match the energy source with other telescopes’ observations, that includes the Chandra X-ray Observatory as well as the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy in Chile, which can detect near-infrared wavelengths– the signal went away entirely. Without apparent emissions in other parts of the electromagnetic range, ASKAP J173608.2 − 321635 is a radio ghost that appears to oppose logic.

Prior surveys identified low-mass stars that occasionally radiate up with radio energy, but those radiating stars typically have X-ray equivalents, the scientists wrote. That makes a stellar source unlikely right here.

The team wrote that dead stars, like pulsars and magnetars (two sorts of ultradense, collapsed stars), are likewise not likely explanations. While pulsars can stream intense beams of radio light past our planet, they rotate with predictable periodicity, generally sweeping their lights past our telescopes on a timescale of hours, not weeks. Magnetars, however, always consist of an effective X-ray equivalent with each of their outbursts– once more, unlike ASKAP J173608.2 − 321635’s behavior.

The closest match is a puzzling class of objects referred to as a galactic center radio transient (GCRT). This swiftly radiant radio source lightens and degrades near the Galaxy’s center over a few hours. Up until now, only three GCRTs have actually been confirmed, and they all appear and go away a lot more swiftly than this new ASKAP object does. Nonetheless, few recognized GCRTs shine with a similar brilliance as the mysterious signal, and X-rays never accompany their radio flare-ups.

The scientist finished by saying that if this brand-new radio item is a GCRT, its properties stretch the boundaries of what astronomers thought GCRTs could do. Future radio studies of the galactic center ought to help end the mystery.

Originally published on Space.com. Read the original article.