Astronomers have found a star that acts unlike any other ever observed. Star Emitting X-Rays and radio waves every 44 minutes, making it a rare and mysterious celestial object. Located about 15,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scutum, this star displays behavior that baffles scientists.
The star belongs to a new class of celestial bodies called long-period radio transients. These objects produce radio bursts that appear every few minutes to several hours. This pattern is much slower than the rapid pulses seen in pulsars, which blink on and off within milliseconds or seconds.
Unusual Star Emitting X-Rays and Radio Waves Baffles Scientists
Unlike known long-period radio transients, this newly discovered star also emits X-rays. According to Nanda Rea, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, this dual emission makes it the first of its kind.
Astronomers used data from several powerful telescopes, including NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the ASKAP telescope in Australia. The star showed bright radioactivity in February 2024, while previous data from before November 2023 showed no such signals. The radio brightness increased dramatically, and researchers also detected X-ray pulses at the same time.
Scientists think this star might be a magnetar—a highly magnetic neutron star—or a white dwarf orbiting closely with a companion star in a binary system. However, neither theory fully explains the signals.
Stars up to eight times more massive than the sun often become white dwarfs after they burn out their hydrogen fuel. These stars shed their outer layers and leave behind a compact core about the size of Earth. The interaction between a white dwarf and a nearby companion star might explain the unusual radio waves, according to the team.
Lead researcher Ziteng Wang from Curtin University in Australia said that the object’s behavior is something never seen before. The Chandra X-ray detection happened by chance, as the telescope was focusing on a different target. Wang added, “It was thrilling to catch this star during its crazy bright phase.”
The star remains visible in radio signals, though much fainter now. The discovery opens up new questions about how stars behave and what kinds of objects might still be undiscovered in our galaxy.
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