Grenade- A study led by the International Center for Radioastronomy Research X -ray emission detected for the first time in a transient source on long period radioa finding that could provide new clues about the origin of similar mysterious signals located in other areas of the sky.
According to the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), which participates in the investigation and is based in Granada (southern Spain), a good metaphor to describe the mysterious behavior of these transitory radius objects for the long period (LPT) would be a lighthouse in the space that turns on for two minutes-with such a powerful light that challenges what is known until now of 40, repeating this pattern again and again.
These astronomical objects, recently discovered and whose nature remains a mystery, emit brief pulses of radio waves with regular intervals that can last minutes or hours.
The study, published on Wednesday in Nature magazine, discovered in particular a mysterious cosmic object called Askap J1832–0911 that emits radio signals and X-ray synchronized every 44 minutes.
This is the first time that X-ray emission is detected in an object of this type, explains Miguel Pérez-Torres, a researcher at the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics, for whom the most surprising thing is that his behavior does not look like anything known in our galaxy: “It is extremely bright, it varies greatly in intensity and does not fit into the traditional categories, such as neutron stars or white dwarfs,” he says.
The international team discovered Askap J1832-0911, located on the Milky Way, about 15,000 light years from the Landwith the Askap radio, located in Wajarri, in Australiaand operated by CSIRO, the National Science Agency of the country.
The radio signals correlated with X -ray pulses detected by the X -ray Observatory Chandra of the POTthat coincidentally observed the same region of heaven.
“Discovering that Askap J1832-0911 emitted X-rays was like finding a needle in a haystack,” says the main author, Ziteng (Andy) Wang, from the node of the University of Curtin del Icrar.
As he explains, the Askap radio hell has a wide field of vision of the night sky, while Chandra only observes a fraction, “so it was a fate that Chandra was observing the same area of the night sky at the same time,” he adds.
Mysterious objects that challenge current theories
Transient radius objects for the long period (LPT) represent a recently identified category of astronomical objects. Since their discovery in 2022, just a dozen of them have been detected throughout the sky.
There is currently no clear explanation about what causes these signs or why they ‘turn on’ and “turn off” in such long, regular and unusual intervals. Detecting them both in X -rays and radio waves could help astronomers identify more cases and advance their understanding.
According to Professor Nanda Rea, second author of the study, finding one of these objects points to the existence of many more.
1 /21 | Photos: This was the Arecibo radio. The Arecibo Observatory was completed from building in 1960, but opened the doors on November 1, 1963. – Ramón “Tonito” Zayas
This finding also allows to limit possible explanations about what type of object it could. Since X -rays have a much greater energy than radio waves, any theory must explain both types of emission, which provides a key track in an unresolved enigma.
“The object is thousands of times more bright than one would expect for its rotation, which forces to rethink some physical models,” says Pérez-Torres, which points to that it could be an aged magnetar-a neutron star with an extremely intense magnetic field-or a supermagnetized white dwarf. Both options challenge current theories, he concludes.