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The Daily Ittefaq

Astronomers spot mysterious object unlike anything seen before

Update : 27 Jan 2022, 13:32

A mysterious object unlike anything seen before has been observed in the Milky Way by astronomers, who say the “spooky” body released a giant burst of energy three times an hour.

As it spins through space, the strange object sends out a beam of radiation, and for one minute in every 20 it is one of the brightest objects in the sky.

The researchers think the object could be a neutron star or a white dwarf – collapsed cores of stars – with an ultra-powerful magnetic field.

The object was first discovered by Curtin University Honours student Tyrone O'Doherty in a region of the Western Australian outback known as the Murchison Widefield Array, using a telescope and a new technique he had developed.

Mr O'Doherty was part of a team led by astrophysicist Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).

“This object was appearing and disappearing over a few hours during our observations. That was completely unexpected. It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that," said Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker.

“And it’s really quite close to us – about 4,000 lightyears away. It’s in our galactic backyard,”  she added.

 

 

 

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