UNITED STATES (VOP TODAY NEWS) — Astronomers have discovered for the first time a mysterious object that emits a huge amount of energy every three hours. This is reported by the Daily Star.
Observations of the object showed that it rotates in space and emits a powerful beam of light. Every twenty minutes the object increases its brightness.
The researchers believe that the object may be a neutron star or a white dwarf, consisting of the cores of stars, with a superstrong magnetic field.
Astrophysicist Dr. Natasha Hurley-Walker of Hardin University, who made the discovery, said: “This object appeared and disappeared for several hours during our observations.
It was completely unexpected. It was a bit creepy for an astronomer because there is nothing known in the sky that could do that.”
“And it’s really quite close to us – about 4,000 light years from here. It’s in our galactic backyard.”
Hurley-Walker added that the observations are consistent with a predicted astrophysical object called a “superlong period magnetar.”
“This is a type of slowly rotating neutron star that has been theoretically predicted to exist. Somehow it converts magnetic energy into radio waves much more efficiently than anything we’ve seen before.”
The object is not new, astronomers call it “transient”, and some of them appear within a few days and disappear after a few months.
The discovery is highly unusual and, according to Hurley-Walker, gives astronomers the opportunity to find out “whether this was a rare single event or a huge new population that we had never noticed before.”
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