DAILY MAIL
Are aliens trying to contact Earth? Scientists discover a mysterious stellar object that emits a five-minute pulse every 22 minutes – and they have no idea what it is
- The magnetar is 15,000 light-years away from Earth in the Scutum constellation
- Experts say this ‘remarkable’ stellar object is only the second of its kind detected
If aliens were to contact Earth, what would it sound like?
Such a scenario has been imagined countless times in science fiction but in reality we have no proof extraterrestrials even exist.
That hasn’t dampened the excitement that an advanced civilisation might be out there, however, and the discovery of a mysterious stellar object which emits a five-minute pulse every 22 minutes will only serve to intensify that.
What’s more, the scientists who detected it aren’t 100 per cent sure what it is.
An international team of astronomers led by Australia’s Curtin University think it could be an ultra-long period magnetar — a rare type of star with the most powerful known magnetic fields in the universe.
WHAT IS A MAGNETAR?
Magnetars are a type of neutron star, an incredibly dense object mainly made up of tightly packed neutron, which forms from the collapsed core of a massive star during a supernova.
What sets magnetars apart from other neutron stars is that they also have the most powerful known magnetic fields in the universe.
For context, the strength of our planet’s magnetic field has a value of about one Gauss, while a refrigerator magnet measures about 100 Gauss.
Magnetars, on the other hand, have magnetic fields of about a million billion Gauss. If a magnetar was located a sixth of the way to the Moon (about 40,000 miles), it would wipe the data from all of the credit cards on Earth.
This allows them to produce extremely powerful bursts of energy at intervals ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes.
What is so unusual about the new discovery, however, is that it emits radio waves every 22 minutes.
This makes it the longest period magnetar ever detected.
It has been doing that for at least 33 years, leading to speculation that it may have some sort of link with extraterrestrials.
‘Whatever mechanism is behind this is extraordinary,’ said lead author Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker.
Magnetars are a type of neutron star – an incredibly dense object mainly made up of tightly packed neutron, which forms from the collapsed core of a massive star during a supernova.
Dr Hurley-Walker said the magnetar in question, named GPM J1839−10, was 15,000 light-years away from Earth in the Scutum constellation.
‘This remarkable object challenges our understanding of neutron stars and magnetars, which are some of the most exotic and extreme objects in the universe,’ she added.
The stellar object is only the second of its kind ever detected.
Its discovery came about because of the first sighting of an ultra-long period magnetar, which produced a giant burst of energy three times an hour and was unlike anything astronomers had seen before.
