The more sensitive our eyes are to the sky, the more we find something we have never seen before.
This is the source of the newly discovered radio signal, which is not far from the center of our galaxy. It was named ASKAP J173608.2-321635, and astronomers have so far been unable to determine what kind of space object its strange characteristics might indicate.
The study has already been published by The Astrophysical Journal and is currently available on the pre-review server arXiv.
“Tell us about the discovery of ASKAP J173608.2-321635: It is near the center of a highly polarized, variable radio galaxy that has no apparent multi-wavelength pair,” explains a group of astronomers led by astronomer at the University of Sydney.
According to him, ASKAP J173608.2-321635 may represent a new class of objects that can be detected by radio-visual surveys.
ASKAP J173608.2-32163 Discovered by the Australian Telescope, ASKAP is one of the most sensitive radio telescopes available today and designed to explore the deep reaches of the radio world.
This telescope has already found many objects we have never seen before, including strange radio circles (we do not know what they represent), millions of galaxies, and mysterious fast radio signals (FRB).
ASKAP J173608.2-32163 may be a completely known type of space object, but if so, it would definitely change the existing definition of this object.
It is highly volatile, emitting radio waves for weeks and then disappearing rapidly. In addition, the signal is strongly polarized, with the orientation of the electromagnetic wave oscillation twisted, both linearly and circularly.
At the same time, ASKAP J173608.2-32163 is noticeably heavier. Whatever the object may be, the fact is that we have not seen it so far. The ASKAP telescope also discovered it in a pilot study while searching for transient radio sources. From April 2019 to August 2020, the signal appeared 13 times in the data.
In April and July 2020, surveys were conducted with other telescopes, but nothing new was found. However, in February 2021, an interesting thing was observed by the radio telescope MeerKAT in South Africa. In April 2021, something was also observed by the Australian Radio Telescope ATCA.
They confirmed the discovery of the ASKAP telescope, but also indicated that the source was highly untouched – MeerKAT and ATCA had not recorded it before. This source appeared neither in the X-ray and near-infrared range, nor in the archival radio data of many different instruments.
This, in turn, gave rise to a mystery that was often revealed to scientists. Polarization indicates scattering and magnetization, which may. Be partly caused by dust and magnetic fields between us and this source in interstellar space. However, it is possible that the source itself is strongly magnetized.
Overall, it’s really hard to figure out what might be the source of these signals. There are several types of stars that are variable in radio wavelengths, such as those that are often erupted, or those that move close to each other in pairs with binary active chromospheres; It is also possible to have pairs of stars that obscure each other as they move around each other. However, since nothing could be observed in the X-ray and near-infrared range, these variants are unlikely.
Stars known for eruptions also have mostly X-ray radiation, which corresponds to radioactivity; In addition, the vast majority of stars have near-infrared radiation proportions that must be detectable.
Most likely, we are not dealing with a pulsar either: a type of neutron star that emits radio waves like a cosmic beacon. Pulsars are characterized by regular periodicity, also hourly. ASKAP J173608.2-32163 is not really like that. In addition, for three months the source was completely “silent”, which is also very inappropriate for Pulsar.
X-ray flats, gamma-ray bursts and supernova explosions were also ruled out.
However, this object has some features in common with the mysterious signal observed near the center of the galaxy. They are called the Radio Transition Centers (GCRT); Three such signals were detected in the 2000s, and even more are awaiting confirmation.
Their source is not yet known, but several features have in common with ASKAP J173608.2-32163.
If ASKAP J173608.2-32163 is also a GCRT signal, its detection may help us to find even more such sources and to identify them.
“Since ASKAP J173608.2-321635 is not detected by conventional methods and may disappear in a few days in a few days, the scarce specimens at our disposal suggest that such sources must exist in others,” the researchers wrote.
The study has already been published by The Astrophysical Journal and is currently available on the pre-review server arXiv.
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