A mysterious spinning object has been spotted in the Milky Way that is unlike anything seen before, scientists say.
Estimated to be around 4,000 light-years from Earth, researchers believe it could belong to a new class of slowly rotating neutron star with an ultra-powerful magnetic field that can be detected by radio telescopes.
The object, first discovered by an Australian university student working on his undergraduate thesis, has been observed to release a huge burst of radio energy for a whole minute every 18 minutes.
The observation is known as a “transient” – which refers to an object that periodically releases brief flashes of radio signals, as if it is switching on and off in space.
Objects that pulse energy in the Universe are often documented, but researchers say an object that turns on for a full minute is highly unusual.
Natasha Hurley-Walker, who led the team at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) at Curtin University, described the discovery as “spooky”.
"[It] was appearing and disappearing over a few hours during our observations,” she said.
“That was completely unexpected. It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there's nothing known in the sky that does that.”
The team is now working to understand what they have found but ICRAR said they were able to establish that the object is incredibly bright and has an extremely strong magnetic field.
Scientists believe the object could be a neutron star or a white dwarf – a term used for the remnants of a collapsed star.
"More detections will tell astronomers whether this was a rare one-off event or a vast new population we'd never noticed before," Dr Hurley-Walker said.
"I'm looking forward to understanding this object and then extending the search to find more.”
Curtin University Honours student Tyrone O’Doherty discovered the mysterious object using the Murchison Widefield Array telescope in outback Western Australia – and a new technique he developed.
He said: “It’s exciting that the source I identified last year has turned out to be such a peculiar object.”
The findings have been published in the Nature journal.
