Astronomers discover mysterious object regularly emitting powerful radio waves | Magnetic Field | Pulse | Volcker

【NTDTV, Beijing time, January 27, 2022】At the end of 2020, astronomers are scanning the universeradioSignal, accidentally discovered a mysteriousobject, which emits super-strong radio waves every 20 minutes or so, and scientists have never seen such an object before.

A study published Wednesday (January 26) in the journal Nature details the findings. “It’s kind of weird for astronomers because there’s nothing in the sky known to do that,” says astronomer Hurley- Natasha Hurley-Walker said her team observed the mysteryobject

The object, named GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3, is very close to Earth, about 4,000 light-years away, and it pulses in a regular rhythm, brightening every 18.18 minutes for 30 to 60 seconds.Humans have not found anything similar to activity before, most of the flickeringradioobjectpulseMuch faster, brightening and disappearing in just a few seconds.

“No one has really thought about looking for such time-spanning objects because we can’t think of any mechanism that produces them, but they exist,” Hurley-Walker said.

pulseindicate that the object may be spinning, and other measurements of its light suggest it must have a strongmagnetic field. Researchers suspect it may be a magnetar, a type of neutron star with a particularly strong magnetic field, but it’s unclear how a magnetar could spin so slowly and yet shine so brightly.

Pulses from rapidly spinning neutron stars can be detected, usually flashing on and off within milliseconds or seconds. Neutron stars lose energy and slow down over time.

“But as they slow down, they are expected to fade away,” says astrophysicist Professor Andrew Norton from The Open University (OU) in the UK, “once they drop to what is known as the death line. Below the calculated value, they should be invisible.”

The newly discovered object, which was observed between January and March 2018, still emits enough energy to still be detected, which has puzzled scientists.

“Somehow it converts magnetic energy into radio waves much more efficiently than anything we’ve seen before.”, Hurley-WalkerSay.

“I was concerned that it came from aliens, but … its radio signals spanned a very wide range of frequencies.” Hurley-Walker“That means it must be a natural process, it’s not an artificial signal,” said Dr. She and her colleagues. She and her colleagues are now looking for more similar objects to be able to figure out what it is.

(Comprehensive report by reporter Li Zhaoxi/responsible editor: Zhang Jie)

URL of this article: https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2022/01/27/a103331461.html

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