An Australian scientist claims to have discovered an unknown, spinning object in the galaxy Milky Way, unlike anything observed before.
The object has been observed to release a large burst of radioactivity for a full 60 seconds, approx. every 18 minutes, according to the BBC.
This galaxy is so far away that scientists actually see it many billions of years back in time
New technology
It is known that objects pulsate energy in the universe, but according to the researcher it is very unusual to release radioactivity for such a long time at a time.
The discovery was first made by student Tyrone O’Doherty at Curtin University Honors, Western Australia, using a self-developed, new telescope technique.
O’Doherty worked under astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker.
She has stated in a press release that the object appeared and disappeared within a few hours, during their observations.
– It was completely unexpected. It was quite frightening to discover for an astronomer, because there is nothing in the sky that is known from the past, that behaves like this.
NASA: – We have gone far back in time, further than we ever expected to be able to do
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The team has managed to determine that the object is approximately 4000 light-years from Earth, and that it has an extremely strong magnetic field, after reviewing data many years back in time.
In addition, the researchers have stated that the object is smaller than the sun, and that it only appears as an ultra-powerful signal. The observation was made between January and March in 2018, according to Business Insider.
Hurley-Walker’s theory is that the mysterious object is the core of a collapsed star.
The discovery from 2018 is one of several that have been made in connection with the use of low-frequency telescopes. Four other disappearing signals have come from unknown objects near the center of the Milky Way, the newspaper writes.
