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Astronomers Detect Strong Cosmic Objects in the Milky Way Galaxy

This powerful cosmic object shoots massive energy into the earth three times an hour.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Astronomers have discovered a mysterious object flickering in the sky galaxy Milky Way. This object spews a large amount of energy onto the Earth three times in an hour.

“This extremely powerful object – located about 4,000 light-years from the sun – is unlike any cosmic structure ever observed,” the researchers wrote in a statement. Space, Friday (28/1/2022).

The object in question – named GLEAM-XJ162759.5-523504.3 (let’s call it GLEAM) – appeared out of nowhere during a recent radio wave survey of the Milky Way. According to the researchers, GLEAM brightened rapidly for about 60 seconds, briefly became one of the brightest objects in the entire sky, then suddenly disappeared into darkness again.

About 20 minutes later, the object reappeared—continuing to glow to peak brightness once more, before fading back to zero a minute later. Objects like this, which appear and disappear in front of the lens of our telescope, are known as transients.

Typically, transients represent near stars, supernovae, or the strange, rapidly rotating carcass of a dead star, also known as a neutron star. However, none of the standard explanations fits the behavior of this newly discovered object sufficiently, the researchers wrote in the new study.

It’s possible that the mysterious GLEAM is evidence of a new type of stellar object that had only been theorized until now—or even one that astronomers had never dreamed of.

“This object appeared and disappeared for several hours during our observations. It was completely unexpected,” said study lead author Natasha Hurley-Walker, a radio astronomer at Curtin University in Bentley, Australia, in the statement.

“That’s kind of scary to an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that,” he added.

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