A mystery celestial object has been discovered to produce a five-minute pulse every 22 minutes, fueling speculation of a highly developed civilization. It may be a magnetar, a rare form of a star with the most vital magnetic fields in the known cosmos, according to an international team of astronomers led by Curtin University in Australia.
The star can generate short, incredibly intense energy surges on a timescale of seconds to minutes. The object has the longest period magnetar yet discovered, emitting radio waves once every 22 minutes. It has been doing this for at least 33 years, giving rise to theories that it is connected to aliens.
A neutron star, an extremely compact object composed primarily of closely packed neutrons, develops from the collapsing core of a large star following a supernova. Magnetars are one type of neutron star. The GPM J183910 magnetar was located in the constellation Scutum, 15,000 light-years from Earth. Neutron stars and magnetars are among the most unusual and extreme things in the cosmos, and this unique object challenges our knowledge of them.
The initial detection of an ultra-long period magnetar, which released a massive burst of energy every 20 minutes, catalyzed the discovery. An undergraduate at Curtin University (Tyrone O’Doherty) made the discovery, prompting the team to look for similar artifacts to see whether or not this was only the beginning of their investigation. The researchers used the Murchison Widefield Array, a radio telescope in remote Western Australia, to conduct their sky survey between July and September 2022.
After looking through data from the best radio telescopes in the world, the researchers realized that the signals from GPM J1839-10 had been picked up as early as 1988. New questions are posed by the finding, such as where magnetars and other enigmatic phenomena like quick radio bursts come from in the first place.
Further studies are planned so that scientists may check whether they can find any other star objects like GPM J183910. This might help determine whether these are magnetars or something connected to extraterrestrial life.
