A mysterious object in the Milky Way has been signalling every 22 minutes for 33 years now

By: Maksim Panasovskiy | 23.07.2023, 14:54
A mysterious object in the Milky Way has been signalling every 22 minutes for 33 years now

There is a mysterious source of repetitive radio signals in our galaxy. It was discovered by Australian astrophysicists, but so far they have not managed to understand what exactly they are dealing with.

Here's What We Know

The signal lasts for about 5 minutes and reaches us every 22 minutes. This has been going on for at least 33 years. The source is in the Milky Way galaxy about 15,000 light years from Earth.

The object has been labelled GPM J1839-10. Astrophysicists from Australia found it after the GLEAM-X object J162759.5-523504.3 went missing in 2018. It had a radio period of 18 minutes.

GPM J1839-10 does not fit into the current understanding of neutron stars and magnetars (a neutron star with a strong magnetic field). This was stated by Natasha Hurley-Walker (Natasha Hurley-Walker), leader of the team of scientists.

The problem is that the detected object rotates too slowly to be a source of radio waves. The low speed doesn't allow it to generate enough magnetic field strength.

Now scientists are at a crossroads. It is possible that GPM J1839-10 represents an unknown type of star. The second option for researchers is to change their idea of how magnetars emit radio bursts.

Source: Science Alert