Today we are going to talk about one of the newest discoveries of the galaxy that would shock all space lovers. Recently, a group of astronomers sighted some unexplainable phenomenon near the Milky Way. There is a relatively near cosmic object 25.800 light-years from Earth, and it is emitting some strange radio signals that had never been known before. The object was identified as ASKAP J173608.2-321635 and is said to be a variable radio source highly polarized.
It was noticed by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), which is the most sensitive radio telescope built to date. ASKAP’s purpose is to observe the deepest areas of the Universe from a radioelectric perspective.
Even though ASKAP is highly susceptible to any stimulation, the strange object is hard to glance at. It seems like it blinks for weeks and suddenly turns off, having an unknown pattern different from all that science previously knew. The electromagnetic waves are so strange that sometimes they are lines and other times circles.
The unidentified object was first noticed in April of 2019, and by August of the next year, had appeared 13 times, but it wasn’t until February of 2021 when it was detected by another telescope from Sudafrica, the MeerKAT. Both telescopes are able to catch the fast bursts of radio wavelength that form the now known odd radio circles, but that doesn’t give scientists a clue about what they are dealing with.
Some theories state that it could be a flaming star that would emit a series of X-rays that correspond to the radio waves. Still, it has a few similarities with other objects from the Galactic Center Radio Transient that were identified in the year 2000, this is not confirmed yet.
Our eyes aren’t made to get these kinds of wavelengths and radio signals, especially because we can’t distinguish between polarized and not polarized light, so it is highly improbable that we will ever see this odd object in the night sky.
They believe that the polarization suggests scattering and magnetization, as a consequence of dust and magnetic fields in the outer space that surrounds our galaxy. But they also believe that the object is magnetized on its own, it is hard for them to tell.
The mystery object is in observation to try to comprehend what are those radio waves that it creates, and maybe this would allow them to know what is it and even its origin.
