(ORDO NEWS) — Astronomers have discovered a strange object that emits a huge stream of energy every 18.18 minutes, like clockwork. According to scientists, so far they have not been able to observe anything like this.
This strange object sends pulses every 18.18 minutes. What would that mean?
The object, first spotted by an Australian university student working on his thesis, emits a massive burst of energy in the form of radio waves three times an hour.
Although scientists are aware of periodic objects such as pulsars that emit radio waves at regular intervals, so far researchers have not observed pulse frequencies of 18.18 minutes, which makes this object very strange and interesting to study.
For now, the researchers are working to understand what they found. After analyzing long-term data, they were able to establish several facts: the object is located about 4000 light years from Earth, it is incredibly bright and has an extremely strong magnetic field. But there are still many mysteries that astronomers have to solve.
One of them is that, according to calculations, this object simply cannot have enough energy to produce such powerful radio waves every 18 minutes.
Despite the object’s unknown nature, scientists already have a hunch as to what it might be. One of the options is a magnetar with an extra long period. This is a theoretically predicted object, which, however, has never been observed.
It could also be a pulsating white dwarf. Researchers know only one pulsar that arose from a white dwarf, but its size was much more modest than that of the “miracle” discovered now.
In addition, it can be a completely new type of astrophysical object or, where without it, an artificial alien structure (unlikely, of course, but I don’t want to rule out such an option).
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