A newly discovered collapsed star, nicknamed a 'zombie star,' challenges our understanding of pulsars by emitting radio waves at an astonishingly slow rate. Located 13,000 light-years away, this object rotates once every 6.45 hours, defying the conventional belief that pulsars cease emitting radio waves when their rotation slows down significantly. Astronomers are baffled by this discovery and are exploring the possibility that it represents a new type of pulsar.
Astronomers have stumbled upon a collapsed star approximately 13,000 light-years away that defies conventional understanding. Discovered in January 2024 by the ASKAP radio telescope in Western Australia, this enigmatic object is suspected to be a novel type of pulsar.Typically, when supermassive stars reach the end of their life cycle and explode as supernovae, the remnants coalesce into an extremely dense object known as a neutron star .
Pulsars are neutron stars that spin rapidly, emitting radio waves from their magnetic poles as they rotate. Most pulsars exhibit spin rates exceeding one revolution per second, resulting in a pulse of radio waves at a consistent frequency each time the beam points toward Earth. However, in recent years, astronomers have encountered compact objects emitting radio waves at significantly slower rates. This puzzling phenomenon challenged the prevailing theory that radio wave emissions cease when rotation slows down beyond a minute per spin.Now, Caleb and her colleagues assert that a newly discovered object, designated ASKAP J1839-0756, rotates at a record-breaking slow pace of 6.45 hours per rotation. Notably, it is the first transient ever observed to possess an interpulse – a weaker pulse occurring midway between the primary pulses, originating from the opposite magnetic pole. Initially, the team hypothesized that ASKAP J1839-0756 might be a white dwarf, a smaller star similar to our sun that has reached the end of its life. However, isolated white dwarfs emitting radio pulses have never been documented, and calculations suggest that this object is too massive to be an isolated white dwarf based on the pulse properties.Subsequently, the team explored the possibility that it could be a magnetar, a neutron star with a colossal magnetic field, up to 10 trillion times stronger than the most powerful MRI machines on Earth. A magnetar with a comparable rotation period of 6.67 hours has been previously detected, but it has only emitted X-rays, not radio waves. Caleb contends that if the star is an isolated magnetar, it would be the first to emit radio waves with such a slow rotation period. This groundbreaking discovery challenges the established understanding of radio emission mechanisms from neutron stars over the past 60 years, according to Caleb. 'This new object is completely rewriting what we thought we knew about radio emission mechanisms from neutron stars of the last 60 years,' she says. 'It is definitely one of the weirdest objects in recent times, because we didn’t think these things existed. But now we’re finding them. If it is a magnetar, it is certainly unique amongst the neutron star population.' The finding necessitates a reevaluation of the notion that pulsars cease emitting radio waves when their spin slows down excessively. 'We’re seeing objects in recent years which seem to cross this death line, but they’re still emitting in the radio,' says Caleb. 'So they’re like zombie stars where you don’t expect them to be alive, but they’re still alive, and they’re pulsing away.
Pulsar Neutron Star Magnetar Radio Waves Rotation Astronomy Zombie Star ASKAP
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