Mysterious stellar object emitting a five-minute pulse every 22 minutes leaves scientists puzzled

A new type of stellar object has been discovered by astronomers which may change their understanding of extreme celestial bodies in the universe.

Earlier, a spinning celestial space object was spotted by Curtin University doctoral student Tyrone O’Doherty in March 2018. Giant bursts of energy were released by that unfamiliar object and it beamed out radiation at a frequency of three times per hour.

The phenomenon was thought to be a remnant of a collapsed star by the researchers. After a study was released that described the observation in January 2022, O’Doherty and a team of astronomers at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, or ICRAR, in Australia started hunting for another such example.

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“We were stumped,” stated Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker, senior lecturer at the Curtin University node of ICRAR. “So we started searching for similar objects to find out if it was an isolated event or just the tip of the iceberg," she added, in a statement

The sky was observed, between July and September 2022, by the team using the Murchison Widefield Array, which is a radio telescope on Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia.

While observing the sky, the scientists spotted an object in the Scutum constellation, 15,000 light-years from Earth. The object, which was named GPM J1839−10, releases radio waves every 22 minutes and the bursts of energy last till five minutes.

Rare type of magnetar?

Astronomers said that the object can be a rare type of star or magnetar which has extremely strong magnetic fields and is capable of releasing energetic and powerful bursts.

A study which gave details about the discovery was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

“This remarkable object challenges our understanding of neutron stars and magnetars, which are some of the most exotic and extreme objects in the Universe,” stated Hurley-Walker, the lead author of the new report.

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“It showed up in observations by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India and the Very Large Array in the USA had observations dating as far back as 1988. That was quite an incredible moment for me. I was five years old when our telescopes first recorded pulses from this object, but no one noticed it, and it stayed hidden in the data for 33 years. They missed it because they hadn’t expected to find anything like it," he added.

Few magnetars are known to exist below what scientists call a “death line" which means that they have a weak magnetic field which fails to release energetic emissions of radio waves.

“The object we’ve discovered is spinning way too slowly to produce radio waves — it’s below the death line,” Hurley-Walker stated.

“Assuming it’s a magnetar, it shouldn’t be possible for this object to produce radio waves. But we’re seeing them. And we’re not just talking about a little blip of radio emission. Every 22 minutes, it emits a five-minute pulse of radio wavelength energy, and it’s been doing that for at least 33 years. Whatever mechanism is behind this is extraordinary," he added.

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