The vast expanses of deep space can already be quite intimidating, and recent findings from NASA might add to that chilling effect.
NASA has identified an enigmatic object emitting signals to Earth every 44 minutes.
This object, situated roughly 16,000 light-years away, was found unexpectedly. The phenomenon it presents is unique, unlike anything astronomers have previously encountered.
Named ASKAP J1832-0911, this object emits powerful bursts every 44 minutes, with each burst lasting two minutes.
ASKAP belongs to a newly identified category of cosmic entities known as long period radio transients.
These enigmatic objects emit radio waves every several minutes—a notably slower rhythm compared to pulsars, which are rotating neutron stars with very regular radiation pulses.
Researchers utilizing NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory—renowned as the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, capable of detecting sources more than 20 times fainter than any prior X-ray telescope—discovered that ASKAP doesn’t only blink in radio waves but also pulses in X-rays, following the same 44-minute pattern.
This discovery marks the first of its kind and raises new questions about the object’s nature and functionality.
“This object is unlike anything we have seen before,” commented lead study author Andy Wang, an astronomer at Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
“ASKAP J1831-0911 could be a magnetar (the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields), or it could be a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetised white dwarf (a low-mass star at the end of its evolution).”
He continued, “However, even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing.”
Intriguingly, ASKAP’s signals underwent significant changes over a six-month period.
When observed in August, scientists found that the radio signal had weakened by a factor of 1,000, and no X-rays were detected, unlike the signals recorded in February.
This abrupt alteration puzzled researchers.
“We looked at several different possibilities involving neutron stars and white dwarfs, either in isolation or with companion stars,” stated co-author Nanda Rea of the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, in a statement. “So far nothing exactly matches up, but some ideas work better than others.”
Interestingly, ASKAP also appears to align in the sky with a supernova remnant—the glowing remnants of an exploded star. However, researchers suspect this alignment is merely coincidental.
The supernova debris seems to be in the foreground, akin to a cloud moving across the sun, while ASKAP J1832 is located much farther in the background.
At present, this object remains a cosmic enigma.
“Finding a mystery like this isn’t frustrating,” said co-author Tong Bao of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, in a statement. “It’s what makes science exciting.”