Scientists from Australia have discovered an unknown spinning object in the Milky Way. They say it is unlike anything seen before.
The object was first discovered by a university student. It released a huge burst of radio energy for a full minute every 18 minutes.
As the objects that pulse energy in the universe are often documented. But, as per the researchers, something that turns on for a minute is highly unusual.
The researchers’ team is working to understand this phenomenon in great detail.
The object was first discovered in a region of the Western Australian outback known as the Murchison Widefield Array. They observed it using a telescope.
However, objects that turn on and off in the Universe are not new to astronomers; they call them “transients”.
Yet an object that turned on for a full minute is what scientists find unusual. After analyzing the data in great detail, the team was able to establish that the object is about 4,000 light-years from Earth.
Unknown object found spinning around Milky Way
Besides, it is incredibly bright and has an extremely strong magnetic field. Going by the possible theories around what the object might be range from a neutron star to a white dwarf.
Still, much of the discovery remains a mystery. More of such detections will decipher whether this was a rare one-off event or a new population astronomers had never noticed before.
Moreover, the Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across. It is a spiral galaxy in structure. What is a galaxy? It is a large group of stars, gas, and dust bound together by gravity.
They differ in shapes and sizes. The Milky Way is a large barred spiral galaxy. All the stars we see in the night sky are in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Since it appears as a milky band of light in the sky, it is known as Milky way.
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