Mystery with strange radio waves arriving on Earth from an unknown source

An international team of astronomers has discovered unusual signals coming from the direction of our galaxy center. These radio waves do not match any known radio source, so they probably come from a hitherto unknown object in space. No scientist, at present, has a clear answer as to their origin.

Researchers from different countries (Australia, USA, Canada, Spain, France, South Africa) who made the relevant publication in the journal Astrophysics "Astrophysical Journal"The strangest feature of the new signal is that it has a very high polarization, which means that its light oscillates in only one direction, but this direction rotates over time."

They also stressed that “the brightness of the object fluctuates dramatically, against 100 times, and the signal appears to "flash" randomly. "We have never seen anything like it," said the researcher Ziting Wang of Institute of Astronomy and Faculty of Physics of the University of Sydney.

"Looking towards the center of our galaxy, we found this object that is unique, as in the beginning it was invisible, then became bright, then faded and then reappeared. The behavior was completely unusual", Said the professor Tara Murphi also of his University Sydney.

Many types of stars emit variable light in the electromagnetic spectrum. The stars neutrons (pulsar), the supernovae (supernova), stars that send flashes in space and rapid explosions radio waves (FRB) are such astronomical objects whose brightness fluctuates.

But the new source, first discovered with the Australian radio telescope ASKAP and its existence was confirmed by the South African Radio Telescope MeerKAT, does not seem to match any of these phenomena. Having detected six radio signals with ASKAP for nine months 2020, astronomers then tried to observe it with an optical telescope, but failed. His attempt was just as unsuccessful Parkes radio telescope, but ultimately the most sensitive MeerKAT detected again this year the mysterious object, which was christened "its object"Instead”(From the nickname of the astronomer who first discovered it).

As Murphy said, "we were lucky that the signal returned, but we found that his behavior was dramatically different. The source disappeared in just one day, although it had lasted for weeks, when we had observed it with the radio telescope ASKAP".

The new unknown source, which is probably small in size and has a strong magnetic field, is being added to other mysterious radio objects that have been discovered relatively recently near the galactic center and also have varying brightness (hence the name "Galactic Center Radio Transients“). Within the next decade, the large interconnected SKA intercontinental radio telescope will be put into operation (Square Kilometer Array), which hopes to shed more light on these mysterious objects.