Astronomers have found a mysterious object in deep space that fired off powerful radio pulses every 62 minutes, then went silent. The discovery, reported in The Astrophysical Journal, adds a new member to a strange class of cosmic objects that scientists only recognised in the last few years.
The source, named LPT J1555-5631, produced two distinct pulses during each 62.2-minute cycle, one longer and one shorter. It has not been detected again since.
The objects belong to a category called long-period transients, or LPTs. They emit long, bright pulses of radio waves with regular, lengthy pauses between each burst. Astronomers have only spotted around a dozen of them since the first was reported in 2022.
The story of these objects began in September 2002, when a source near the centre of the Milky Way, GCRT J1745-3009, spat out five flares of radio waves precisely 77 minutes apart, then fell silent. Astronomer Scott Hyman of Sweet Briar College, who studied that first source, led the team behind the new discovery.
Twenty years later, while looking for something else, Hyman’s team found the same pattern repeating in the data. The new source pulsed every 62.2 minutes across a 10-hour observation, offering fresh clues about what produces these signals and whether they all come from the same kind of object.
Most LPTs have never been seen again after their first appearance. GCRT J1745-3009 has shown repeat activity, as have two others, but the new source, like most of the catalogue, remains a one-off sighting for now.
Source: ScienceAlert
