This is probably the strangest signal ever. And astronomers are trying to explain it.

The team that conducted the scientific investigation into this matter was led by Manisha Kalb, and the conclusions reached in this regard were presented. Natural astronomyAlthough more than 3,000 objects of this type have been identified so far, none of them rotate as slowly as the radio neutron star observed using Australia’s SKA Pathfinder telescope.

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The assumed rotation rate of this object is very low, especially for neutron stars. They can have very high masses and very small sizes. Suffice it to say that with a diameter of 10 kilometers, its mass may be greater than that of the Sun. However, the diameter of our star is about 1.5 million kilometers.

But what about those transitions? According to the research team, the rotation rate is less than an hour. By contrast, most scientifically known neutron stars rotate once for a fraction of a second, and maybe a few seconds at most. The difference is huge, and so astronomers are trying to understand why this phenomenon occurs.

The signal, which could be coming from a neutron star, has astronomers baffled. If this is indeed the object, its rotation rate should be extremely low.

It is not known exactly where the signal studied by the Australian scientists comes from. Apart from the obvious type, a neutron star, the authors of the new results also consider a white dwarf. However, the latter alternative is unlikely because no such objects with strong magnetic fields have been identified so far. That should be the case here, which raises some doubts.

The actual scenario may still be different, and the culprit in all this confusion is a white dwarf and a neutron star that together form a binary system. Pinpointing the source of the received radio signals will be a priority for the research team members in the near future. The information collected may overturn everything we thought we knew about neutron stars.

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Thanks to technological advances, astronomers have a much better understanding of what is happening in the universe. Until now, many phenomena have remained unnoticed, but that does not mean they did not happen. With tools like ASKAP at their disposal, scientists have more knowledge, but at the same time they have to deal with an increasing number of unknowns.