Mysterious object discovered in deep space, that sends 'strange' signals every 44 minutes, leaves scientists baffled, here's everything we know

The mystery of deep space has once again left scientists baffled, after a mysterious object has been discovered that releases intense signals for two minutes every 44 minutes.  In a study published in the journal nature, this object is named ASKAP J1832−0911, that sends out powerful signals like bursts of radio and X-ray signals, following a pattern, that lasts two minutes and then reappears after every 44 minutes.

What baffles scientists is that this pattern is not usual for any celestial body in the known space, raising questions about what it could be. “This could be something exotic,” said lead author Ziteng Andy Wang of Curtin University in Australia. "It is unlike anything we have seen before," he added.

What's exotic in ASKAP J1832−0911?

The mysterious object ASKAP J1832−0911 is located about 15,000 light years away in our Milky Way galaxy. It was discovered using Australia’s Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, near a supernova remnant.

This 'exotic' object is one of a kind. Firstly, it follows a very rare 'on-off; behavior, if compared to other cosmic bodies, like pulsars or magnetars. These bodies send out pulses much more quickly, often every few seconds or less. However,  ASKAP J1832−0911, remains silent for 42 minutes, and then switches on and sends signals for 2 minutes, and repeats. Scientists observed these signals for one month.

Secondly, ASKAP J1832−0911 falls into a category called "long-period transients", the objects that release bursts of radio waves at long intervals. But what is more rare is that many cosmic bodies fall in the long-period transients, but none of them had ever been seen emitting X-rays. 

Lastly, scientists believe that this object can be a magnetar, a dead star, such as neutron star or white dwarf, remains of stars that have exploded in a supernova. But these dead stars also do not behave in this pattern.

This could possibly be the first time a contact with such a celestial boy has been made. Now, astronomers are in a search for similar bodies in space. “While our discovery doesn’t solve the mystery of what these objects are, it brings us closer to two exciting possibilities. We could be looking at something completely new, or witnessing familiar objects behaving in ways we haven’t seen before,” Wang concluded.