…and in our cosmic backyard, and by WA scientists.

Magnetars (highly magnetised pulsars, the stellar remnants left behind after certain kinds of supernova) usually pulse a high energy beam every 10 seconds or so, but this one does it every 18 minutes.

ABC takes up the story:

In early 2018, something in our cosmic backyard blasted out powerful jets of energy for up to a minute about once every 18 minutes for three months. Then it stopped.

Despite being one of the brightest radio objects in the sky, it went unnoticed until a team of astronomers looked back at data collected by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in outback Western Australia.

“When it is on, it is brighter than the next brightest thing in the sky in that area, which is a supermassive black hole ,” said Natasha Hurley-Walker, an astrophysicist at Curtin University and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

The discovery, published today in the journal Nature, sent the astronomers into a spin.

“I initially expected to be something that we already knew about like the signature of a star exploding, or two stars colliding,” Dr Hurley-Walker said.

But the object, located around 4,000 light-years away, was “very, very spooky,” Dr Hurley-Walker said.

“This thing was just there one minute and then gone the next. Nothing does that, that’s crazy.”

Full Report

Bubblecar said:

…and in our cosmic backyard, and by WA scientists.

Magnetars (highly magnetised pulsars, the stellar remnants left behind after certain kinds of supernova) usually pulse a high energy beam every 10 seconds or so, but this one does it every 18 minutes.

ABC takes up the story:

In early 2018, something in our cosmic backyard blasted out powerful jets of energy for up to a minute about once every 18 minutes for three months. Then it stopped.

Despite being one of the brightest radio objects in the sky, it went unnoticed until a team of astronomers looked back at data collected by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in outback Western Australia.

“When it is on, it is brighter than the next brightest thing in the sky in that area, which is a supermassive black hole ,” said Natasha Hurley-Walker, an astrophysicist at Curtin University and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

The discovery, published today in the journal Nature, sent the astronomers into a spin.

“I initially expected to be something that we already knew about like the signature of a star exploding, or two stars colliding,” Dr Hurley-Walker said.

But the object, located around 4,000 light-years away, was “very, very spooky,” Dr Hurley-Walker said.

“This thing was just there one minute and then gone the next. Nothing does that, that’s crazy.”

Full Report

Heard that on the radio in the car. Interesting that it was found in a data search. They were just looking for “anything bright” apparently.

Oh, and they have only been able to find it with that particular array apparently.

““When it is on, it is brighter than the next brightest thing in the sky in that area, which is a supermassive black hole ,” “

I knew that black holes are not totally black, but I’m surprised to read that one might be “the next brightest thing in the sky in that area”.

The Rev Dodgson said:

““When it is on, it is brighter than the next brightest thing in the sky in that area, which is a supermassive black hole ,” “

I knew that black holes are not totally black, but I’m surprised to read that one might be “the next brightest thing in the sky in that area”.

How many times do I have to tell you kids to stop turning the light on & off. You’ll upset the neighbours.

The Rev Dodgson said:

““When it is on, it is brighter than the next brightest thing in the sky in that area, which is a supermassive black hole ,” “

I knew that black holes are not totally black, but I’m surprised to read that one might be “the next brightest thing in the sky in that area”.

Radio sky, yes. Galactic jets from active galaxies (containg a supermassive black hole) such as Centaurus A have always been the brightest thing in the sky in radio wavelengths.

The startling thing to me is that the magnetar stopped.

But even the long period is exceptional. Magnetars generate their enormous magnatic field by a contraction rate that exceeds that of a normal neutron star. The result is a very rapid rotation rate. So we expect all magnetars to have faster pulsing than normal pulsars.