Mysterious Star Emitting Both Radio Waves and X-Rays | 04 Jun 2025

Source: IE 

Astronomers have discovered a unique celestial object that emits simultaneous radio waves and X-rays every 44 minutes, marking it as a rare member of a newly identified class known as long-period radio transients. 

• It is located in the Milky Way galaxy about 15,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Scutum. 
• Long-period radio transients emit bright radio bursts every few minutes to hours—much longer than typical pulsars, which blink on and off in milliseconds to seconds due to their rapid rotation. 
  • Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars, formed from the collapsed core of a massive star after it dies. 
• Nature of the object is still unknown, with possible identities including: 
  • A magnetar (a spinning neutron star with an extreme magnetic field) 
  • A white dwarf in a binary system with a companion star. 
    • Stars up to eight times the mass of our Sun end as white dwarfs. After using up their hydrogen fuel, they expand into red giants, shed outer layers, and collapse into a dense, Earth-sized core called a white dwarf. 
• Researchers used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, and other telescopes for their study. 
• Radio waves have long wavelengths and low frequencies, primarily used for communication such as radio and television. X-rays possess short wavelengths and high frequencies, allowing them to penetrate materials and are widely used in medical imaging.