Astronomers in Australia discovered mysterious spinning objects in the Milky Way. Here’s all you need to know about the never-before-seen object.
Mysterious object found in the Milky way
A team of astronomers from Australia stumbled upon an astronomical mystery in the Milky Way. The “spinning object” is one of its kind and is releasing bursts of energy at intervals. It was first spotted in 2021 by Tyrone O’Doherty, a university student working on his undergraduate thesis. He was mapping radio waves when he stumbled upon this. After the initial discovery, astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker followed up for a better understanding of it. She concluded that it released pulses of energy, “every 18.18 minutes, like clockwork”.
“A team mapping radio waves has discovered something unusual that releases a giant burst of energy three times an hour, and it’s unlike anything astronomers have seen before,” tweeted the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).
What is the mysterious object?
The mysterious object was discovered using a low-frequency radio telescope named Murchison Widefield Array in Australia’s outback. According to Hurley-Walker, the object was appearing and disappearing. “That was completely unexpected. It was kind of spooky for an astronomer. Because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that,” she explained. Hence, the team believes that it can be a white dwarf. A white dwarf is a star that has burned up all of its energy.
The possible white dwarf located in the Milky Way is around 4,000 light-years away from Earth. It has a strong magnetic field. However, there is much more unknown about the object. “If you do all of the mathematics, you find that they shouldn’t have enough power to produce these kinds of radio waves every 20 minutes,” said Hurley-Walker. She initially assumed it was a signal from alien life. However, researchers observed it at frequent intervals. Hence, they concluded that it is natural.
