One of the strangest cosmic objects ever seen just got even weirder — NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope caught it blasting out X-ray radiation and radio waves.
The mystery object, known as ASKAP J1832- 0911, is located within the Milky Way about 15,000 light-years away from Earth. It’s now known to flash in both radio waves and X-rays for a two-minute period every 44 minutes.
This is the first time an object like this, a so-called “long-period transient” or “LPT,” has been seen in high-energy X-ray light as well as low-energy radio wave light. The team behind this discovery hopes the finding could help reveal what these flashing objects actually are and how they launch their mystery signals.
However, not only is there no explanation for how the signals from LPTs are generated yet, but astronomers also don’t know why these signals “switch on” and “switch off” at long, regular and unusual intervals.
“This object is unlike anything we have seen before,” team leader and Curtin University researcher Zieng (Andy) Wang said in a statement.
Chandra gets lucky. Star doesn’t.
LPTs are flashing cosmic bodies that emit radio pulses separated by a few minutes or a few hours. They were first discovered in 2022, making them a very recent discovery. Since this initial detection, astronomers from around the globe have discovered a further 10 LPTs.
None seem to be quite like this one, though — not yet anyway.
ASKAP J1832- 0911 was first spotted by astronomers using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Wajarri Country, Australia.
The team then followed this initial LPT discovery in radio waves with further investigation using NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope, shockingly finding that its highly periodic and unusual radio emissions are mimicked in X-rays.
In fact, catching ASKAP J1832- 0911 throwing its regular X-ray tantrum was a matter of good fortune.
“Discovering that ASKAP J1832-0911 was emitting X-rays felt like finding a needle in a haystack,” Wang said. “The ASKAP radio telescope has a wide field view of the…
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