Unusual Source Of Radio Emission Discovered Was In Space
Australian scientists have discovered the slowest rotating neutron star of more than 3,000 known. It emits radio radiation so slowly that it does not fit modern scientific ideas at all.
The study appears in today’s issue of the journal Nature Astronomy. The discovery was made by astrophysicists from the University of Sydney and the Australian National Science Agency (CSIRO), as well as scientists from the University of Manchester and Oxford. They studied the southern sky with two new radio instruments – ASKAP and MeerKAT. Subsequently, the observational data revealed an object with all the main signs of a neutron star, but its radio emission had a period of 54 minutes, instead of the periods of seconds and fractions of a second typical for these objects.
While the most likely explanation is a slowly rotating neutron star, the researchers said it cannot be ruled out that it is a binary system with a neutron star or white dwarf. New research will help clarify more precisely what it is and, perhaps, even change scientific ideas about the life and death of stars.
