(ORDO NEWS) — Using the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory (PRAO), Russian astronomers searched for rotating radio transition objects (RTOs) and discovered two new RTOs as part of this observational campaign.
VROs are a subclass of pulsars characterized by sporadic emission. The first objects of this type were identified in 2006 as sporadically appearing scattered pulses, the frequency of which varied from several minutes to several hours.
However, the nature of these transient processes is still unclear. In general, it is assumed that these are ordinary pulsars experiencing strong impulses.
So far, only slightly more than 100 VROs have been detected, so astronomers are interested in discovering new such transients in order to characterize them and improve our knowledge of their nature.
Now a group of astronomers led by Sergei Tyulbashev from PRAO reports the discovery of two new VROs – J1550+09 and J2047+13.
The find was made using a Large Phased Array in PRAO with a channel width of 78 kHz and a readout time of 12.5 milliseconds. Observations were carried out simultaneously in 96 spatial beams at declinations from -7 to +42 degrees.
“The large effective area of the radio telescope, which is approximately 45,000 m2, provides high fluctuation sensitivity, which makes it possible to search for the VRO,” the researchers explained.
Both VROs were detected far beyond the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Their distances are estimated at about 3,100 and 7,200 light-years for J1550+09 and J2047+13, respectively, which is typical for pulsars.
The pulse half-widths for J1550+09 and J2047+13 were 18 and 35 milliseconds, respectively.
Astronomers noted that the observation time before the appearance of pulses is from 11 to 20 hours, which confirms the existence of VROs, in which one pulse lasts 10 or more hours.
“The study shows the existence of rotating transients, the pulses of which occur less frequently than one pulse per 10 hours of observation. Long series of observations and the use of the programs described above make it possible to detect such rarely flashing rotating radio transients,” the authors write.
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