Astronomers baffled by mystery object flashing signals at Earth every 44 minutes: ‘Like nothing we've ever seen'

The truth is out there.
Astronomers say they're stunned by an unidentified object flashing strange signals from deep space.
The object, named ASKAP J1832-0911, was detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and NASA'S Chandra X-ray observatory — the world's most powerful X-ray telescope.
'It is unlike anything we have seen before,' Andy Wang, an astronomer at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, declared in a statement published this week.
ASKAP J1832-0911 emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays for two minutes every 44 minutes, according to the experts, who documented their findings in Nature journal.
An image of the sky showing the region around ASKAP J1832-0911.
Ziteng Wang, ICRAR
ASKAP J1832-0911 has been classified as a 'long-period transient' or 'LPT' — a cosmic body that emits radio pulses separated by a few minutes or a few hours.
Wang and has team theorize that the object could be a dead star, but they don't know why it 'switches on' and 'switches off' at 'long, regular and unusual intervals,' Space.com reports.
'ASKAP J1831-0911 could be a magnetar (the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields), or it could be a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetised white dwarf (a low-mass star at the end of its evolution),' Wang wrote.
'However, even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing,' he added. 'This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution.'
Wang and his team hope to detect similar another using radio waves and the Chandra X-ray observatory, saying a subsequent discovery will help them learn more about the nature of such LPTs.
An artist's illustration of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in space.
NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan, NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan
It's not the only space discovery to hit headlines and spark conversation in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, Cambridge University Press revealed that astronomers had detected a signal extracted from interstellar noise that could be a sign of active biology on another planet.
'Astronomers have detected the most promising signs yet of a possible biosignature outside the solar system, although they remain cautious,' a press release from the prestigious publisher read.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

10 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Meet the tiny Australian Moth that travels 1,000 km and navigates using the stars

An Australian moth follows the stars during its yearly migration, using the night sky as a guiding compass, according to a new study. When temperatures heat up, nocturnal Bogong moths fly about 1,000 kilometres to cool down in caves by the Australian Alps. They later return home to breed and die. Birds routinely navigate by starlight, but the moths are the first known invertebrates, or creatures without a backbone, to find their way across such long distances using the stars. Scientists have long wondered how the moths travel to a place they've never been. A previous study hinted that Earth's magnetic field might help steer them in the right direction, along with some kind of visual landmark as a guide. Related Does cutting off rhinos' horns protect them from poachers? New study supports controversial approach Since stars appear in predictable patterns each night, scientists suspected they might help lead the way. They placed moths in a flight simulator that mimicked the night sky above them and blocked out the Earth's magnetic field, noting where they flew. Then they scrambled the stars and saw how the moths reacted. When the stars were as they should be, the moths flapped in the right direction. But when the stars were in random places, the moths were disoriented. Their brain cells also got excited in response to specific orientations of the night sky. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. It 'was a very clean, impressive demonstration that the moths really are using a view of the night sky to guide their movements,' said Kenneth Lohmann, who studies animal navigation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was not involved with the new research. Researchers don't know what features of the night sky the moths use to find their way. It could be a stripe of light from the Milky Way, a colourful nebula or something else entirely. Whatever it is, the insects seem to rely on that, along with Earth's magnetic field, to make their journey. Related Rare snail that can 'slurp up earthworms like noodles' caught on camera laying an egg from its neck Scientists use special 'squeezing' and electrical probes to collect sperm from endangered kākāpō Other animals harness the stars as a guide. Birds take celestial cues as they soar through the skies, and dung beetles roll their remains short distances while using the Milky Way to stay on course. It's an impressive feat for Bogong moths, whose brains are smaller than a grain of rice, to rely on the night sky for their odyssey, said study author David Dreyer with Lund University in Sweden. 'It's remarkable that an animal with such a tiny brain can actually do this,' Dreyer said.

Yahoo

an hour ago

• Yahoo

Wild Things: Birds enjoy an insect boom

Wild Things columnist Eric Brown is buzzing with enthusiasm about the varied insects to be found during a record sunny spring and the benefits to birds relying on them for food. While it awaits a verdict on its future, Crossness Nature Reserve has come alive with a little sunshine particularly encouraging insects out into the open. Lesser emperor dragonflies are being regularly reported by observers at the Belvedere-based reserve under threat from industrial development. Wild Things: Good news for puffins Plenty of common butterflies like holly blue are around, too, plus three marbled whites seen in the Sea Wall Field area. The beautiful ruby-tailed wasp also seen on the reserve is a solitary cuckoo wasp with a dubious habitat of laying its eggs in the nests of other solitary wasp and bee species, particularly mason bees. When the eggs hatch the larvae eat the larvae of the host species in order to develop. Bird interest includes sedge warblers making use of the plentiful reeds with one observed feeding a fledgling. A slow worm was also discovered as Bexley Borough's top reserve maintains its reputation for biodiversity. Insects are busy at Chislehurst Common, too. A gaudy hoverfly known as xanthgogramma pedissequum showed up . It has no official common English name, but it is easy to see from the picture why it is known as 'superb dayglower' across Europe. Also around are speckled wood butterflies and orange-tailed mining bees, andrena haemorrhoa, with their brilliant orange thoraxes. Wild Things: Searching for butterfly royalty Mining bees are solitary bees. They do not form colonies, but live independently, tunnelling into the ground where they make a nest. The glade at the common, with areas of bare earth, is an ideal site. They collect pollen for young to feed on, and are important pollinators. Broad-bodied chaser dragonflies and hairy shieldbugs are among many other insect species to be found on Chislehurst Common. If you are nearby, why not make time for a walk around to see how many insect and bird species you can find ? From my house I have seen many large flying insects. This is good news for the local swifts I first spotted returning from Africa on May 1, six days earlier than my first "house" sighting of 2024. I've even seen one catching an insect and passing it to another swift on the wing. My largest swift count so far at one time has been five and I was delighted to also spot a group of five house martins in the same airspace. Previously I've been lucky to see just a couple of house martins all summer. On one memorable day I saw swifts, house martins and a swallow all pass my window. Maybe an increase in insects has been responsible for luring these birds in the sunniest spring on record. Certainly I expect to hear soon of an increase in butterfly numbers after last year's dismally wet spring hit their numbers.

Yahoo

2 hours ago

• Yahoo

Meet the tiny Australian Moth that travels 1,000 km and navigates using the stars

An Australian moth follows the stars during its yearly migration, using the night sky as a guiding compass, according to a new study. When temperatures heat up, nocturnal Bogong moths fly about 1,000 kilometres to cool down in caves by the Australian Alps. They later return home to breed and die. Birds routinely navigate by starlight, but the moths are the first known invertebrates, or creatures without a backbone, to find their way across such long distances using the stars. Scientists have long wondered how the moths travel to a place they've never been. A previous study hinted that Earth's magnetic field might help steer them in the right direction, along with some kind of visual landmark as a guide. Related Does cutting off rhinos' horns protect them from poachers? New study supports controversial approach Since stars appear in predictable patterns each night, scientists suspected they might help lead the way. They placed moths in a flight simulator that mimicked the night sky above them and blocked out the Earth's magnetic field, noting where they flew. Then they scrambled the stars and saw how the moths reacted. When the stars were as they should be, the moths flapped in the right direction. But when the stars were in random places, the moths were disoriented. Their brain cells also got excited in response to specific orientations of the night sky. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. It 'was a very clean, impressive demonstration that the moths really are using a view of the night sky to guide their movements,' said Kenneth Lohmann, who studies animal navigation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was not involved with the new research. Researchers don't know what features of the night sky the moths use to find their way. It could be a stripe of light from the Milky Way, a colourful nebula or something else entirely. Whatever it is, the insects seem to rely on that, along with Earth's magnetic field, to make their journey. Related Rare snail that can 'slurp up earthworms like noodles' caught on camera laying an egg from its neck Scientists use special 'squeezing' and electrical probes to collect sperm from endangered kākāpō Other animals harness the stars as a guide. Birds take celestial cues as they soar through the skies, and dung beetles roll their remains short distances while using the Milky Way to stay on course. It's an impressive feat for Bogong moths, whose brains are smaller than a grain of rice, to rely on the night sky for their odyssey, said study author David Dreyer with Lund University in Sweden. 'It's remarkable that an animal with such a tiny brain can actually do this,' Dreyer said.