Rare Binary Stars May Be Sending Out Bursts Of Radio Waves Toward Earth

Astronomers have discovered a strange celestial object named GLEAM-X J162759.5−523504.3, which is sending out bursts of radio waves at regular intervals. The discovery was made using older data collected by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a powerful radio telescope in Australia that can detect low-frequency radio waves from space.

The data was further studied with MeerKAT, a high-resolution radio telescope in South Africa, to confirm the findings.

“Our new discovery lies far off the galactic plane, so there are only a handful of stars nearby, and we’re now certain one star system, in particular, is generating the radio waves” astrophysicist Natasha Hurley of the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia, said in a statement .

The findings have been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters about the source located about 5,000-light years from Earth.

Astronomers noticed that GLEAM-X was emitting bursts of radio waves in a highly organised and polarised manner. These signals are similar to those produced by pulsars – rapidly spinning neutron stars with strong magnetic fields that send out beams of energy. However, what sets GLEAM-X apart is the much longer time between each burst.

The object’s behavior is puzzling for scientists because it doesn’t act like a typical pulsar or other known sources of periodic signals. Pulsars usually rotate extremely fast, sending radio waves every few milliseconds to seconds. But GLEAM-X’s signals appear once every 2.9 hours – a much longer gap.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that the object appears to be linked to a faint, cool star of the M-dwarf type. M-dwarfs are small, red stars that are much smaller and less bright than our Sun. This makes GLEAM-X unique since pulsars are usually not linked to such stars.

The initial signals were detected in older MWA data, where GLEAM-X sent out bursts of radio waves lasting 30 to 60 seconds every 18.18 minutes. Strangely, these signals stopped in March 2018, leaving astronomers curious about what might have caused this.

In follow-up observations in 2023, astronomers noticed a similar phenomenon in another region of the sky. This new object emitted bursts of radio waves lasting five minutes, but with an even longer gap – 22 minutes between each signal. This strange behavior has led scientists to believe that the signals are produced by powerful and highly organised magnetic fields within the star system.

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Researchers have ruled out the possibility that GLEAM-X is a magnetar, which is a rare type of neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field. Magnetars typically behave differently and produce bursts of energy more frequently.

Instead, astronomers believe GLEAM-X could be part of a rare binary system, a pair of stars orbiting each other. In this case, the system may include a white dwarf – a dense, dead star that is the leftover core of a larger star that has burned out its fuel. The interaction between the two stars, particularly their magnetic fields, might be creating these bursts of radio signals.

This discovery is exciting because it opens up new possibilities for studying unusual star systems and magnetic field interactions in space. Scientists are eager to study GLEAM-X further to better understand where the signals come from and what causes them. By learning more about this object, astronomers hope to uncover more about the diversity of stars and systems in our universe.

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(Image: NASA)