© ICRARAn artist's impression of what the object might look like if it's a magnetar. Magnetars are incredibly magnetic neutron stars, some of which sometimes produce radio emission. Known magnetars rotate every few seconds, but theoretically, "ultra-long period magnetars" could rotate much more slowly.
A team mapping radio waves in the universe has discovered something unusual that releases a giant burst of energy three times an hour, and it's unlike anything astronomers have seen before.The team that discovered it think it could be a neutron star or a white dwarf — collapsed cores of stars — with an ultra-powerful magnetic field.
Spinning in space, the strange object sends out a beam of radiation that crosses Earth's line of sight, and for one minute in every 20, is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky.Astrophysicist Dr. Natasha Hurley-Walker, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, led the team that made the discovery. "This object was appearing and disappearing over a few hours during our observations," she said. "That was completely unexpected. It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there's nothing known in the sky that does that.
And it's really quite close to us — about 4,000 light-years away. It's in our galactic backyard."The object was discovered by Curtin University Honors student Tyrone O'Doherty using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in outback Western Australia and a new technique he developed. "It's exciting that the source I identified last year has turned out to be such a peculiar object," said Mr O'Doherty, who is now studying for a Ph.D. at Curtin. "The MWA's wide field of view and extreme sensitivity are perfect for surveying the entire sky and detecting the unexpected."
Objects that turn on and off in the universe aren't new to astronomers — they call them transients. ICRAR-Curtin astrophysicist and co-author Dr. Gemma Anderson said, "When studying transients, you're watching the death of a massive star or the activity of the remnants it leaves behind."
Slow transients like supernovae might appear over the course of a few days and disappear after a few months. Fast transients, like a type of neutron star called a pulsar, flash on and off within milliseconds or seconds. But Dr. Anderson said finding something that turned on for a minute was really weird. She said the mysterious object was incredibly bright and smaller than the sun, emitting highly-polarized radio waves — suggesting the object had an extremely strong magnetic field.
Dr. Hurley-Walker said the observations match a predicted astrophysical object called an ultra-long period magnetar. "It's a type of slowly spinning neutron star that has been predicted to exist theoretically," she said. "But nobody expected to directly detect one like this because we didn't expect them to be so bright. Somehow it's converting magnetic energy to radio waves much more effectively than anything we've seen before."
Dr. Hurley-Walker is now monitoring the object with the MWA to see if it switches back on. "If it does, there are telescopes across the Southern Hemisphere and even in orbit that can point straight to it," she said.
© Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker (ICRAR/Curtin) and the GLEAM Team.This image shows a new view of the Milky Way from the Murchison Widefield Array, with the lowest frequencies in red, middle frequencies in green, and the highest frequencies in blue. The star icon shows the position of the mysterious repeating transient.
Dr. Hurley-Walker plans to search for more of these unusual objects in the vast archives of the MWA. "More detections will tell astronomers whether this was a rare one-off event or a vast new population we'd never noticed before," she said.
MWA director, Professor Steven Tingay, said the telescope is a precursor instrument for the Square Kilometre Array — a global initiative to build the world's largest radio telescopes in Western Australia and South Africa. "Key to finding this object, and studying its detailed properties, is the fact that we have been able to collect and store all the data the MWA produces for almost the last decade at the Pawsey Research Supercomputing Centre. Being able to look back through such a massive dataset when you find an object is pretty unique in astronomy," he said. "There are, no doubt, many more gems to be discovered by the MWA and the SKA in coming years."
The Murchison Widefield Array is located on the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia. The observatory is managed by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, and was established with the support of the Australian and Western Australian Governments. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji as the traditional owners of the observatory site.
Source: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
Reader Comments
Btw, it's spelled Hmm...
Now a transient that repeats on a tight time scale ought not be called transient - it ought be called periodic.
Anyhow, I don't give one flying flip about shit 4000 so-called light years away.
Really - it is pointless just now to even give this an iota of consideration.
Pressing matters are at hand, so lets have some focus shall we.
Jeesh.
Repeating transient my ass. Transient BS - be gone.
BK
its not even 4000 light years away, though people 30 miles away do consider it its own universe.
~
So, if it is true the speed of light is: 670,200,000 miles per hour. [Link] (In a vacuum)
Now there are 8766 hours in a year (on average over a 4-year time frame). Multiply that by 4 giving: 35064 hours. Being we are talking about 4000 light years away, multiply the last number by 1000 giving 35,064,000 hours so multiply that by 670,200,000 and you get the following: 23499892800000000 miles away 4000 light years is equal to. So, divide that number by 30 and you get the ratio as follows:
783,329,760,000,000.
So this supposed energy source is 783.33 trillion times further away than the "People" living 30 miles away from you. What do you think is more important for your welfare may I ask rhetorically cause it seems obvious to me.
Ken
If your neighbor ain't seeing the light, then maybe they need a clue?
Truckers are good for that and walkers even better.
I think this might actually happen and I can't wait.
BK
I live in what's been voted the worst town in Oregon. People just drive through on the highway. I love my small town though.
I wasn't even making fun of homeless people. I've been there.
A lot of the people 30 miles away think we're terrible out here, (next city over),I have no problems with them!
OK, now to watch it. Well, I see my guess/aim was true. . . Alison. . .
Kudos Mr. O'Doherty: Here is a proper use of supercomputers: (Unlike most of their uses these days.)
As re the below, I bet that it would be more accurate to say one second in twenty minutes. R.C.
"The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in a decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence"
- Nikola Tesla -
However, the truth is much deeper.
"If you knew the magnificence of three, six and nine, you could have the key to the universe"
- Nikola Tesla -
His obsession was not simply with numbers in general, but especially with these numbers: 3, 6, 9.
Tesla said these numbers are extremely important but no one has seriously listened to him. He also calculated the nodal points around the planet linked to the numbers three, six and nine.
But why these numbers?
First, we must understand that we did not create mathematics, we only discovered it. Mathematics represents language and universal law. No matter where you are in the universe, everything in the universe obeys this law ..
There are standard models that are found naturally throughout the Universe. The patterns we have discovered in biological life, galaxies, star formations, evolution, and almost all natural systems. Some of these fundamental patterns are the golden ratio and sacred geometry.
They are truly important systems that nature seems to obey. Another model is the one that starts from number one and continues progressively doubling. Cells and embryos seem to develop following this sacred model: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 ...
Some scientists call these schemes " God's plan ".
In this mathematical model there is a repeating sequence: 1, 2, 4, 8, 7, and 5, and so on 1, 2, 4, 8, 7, 5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 7 , 5, 1, 2, 4 ...
Scientist Marko Rodin believes that these numbers represent a vector from the third to the fourth dimension which he calls a "flow field"
. " This field should be a higher dimensional energy that affects the energy circuit of the other six points.
Randy Powell, a student of Marko Rodin says this is the secret key to free energy, which Tesla theorized.
We start from 1, doubled is 2; 2 doubled is 4; 4 doubled is 8; 8 doubled is 16, which means 1 + 6 which equals 7; 16 doubled is 32 resulting in 3 + 2 which is equal to 5; 32 doubled is 64 (6 + 4 equals 10), resulting in a total of 1; If we continue following the same pattern we will keep the sequence: 1, 2, 4, 8, 7, 5, 1, 2 ...
If we start from 1 backwards we will still get the same model only in reverse:
Half of 1 is 0.5 (0 + 5) equal to 5. Half of 5 is 2.5 (2 + 5) equal to 7, and so on .
As you can see, there is no mention of 3, 6 and 9. It is as if they were beyond this model, free from it. However, there is something strange once these numbers start doubling. 3 doubled is 6; 6 doubled is 12 which would lead to 3 (1 + 2); in this diagram there is no mention of 9.
It's like 9 is beyond everything, completely free from both models.
But if you start doubling 9 it will always result in 9: 18, 36, 72, 144, 288, 576 ...
This is also called the " symbol of enlightenment" .
We find a lot of evidence that nature uses a triple symmetry of multiples of six, including the shape of the hexagonal tiles of the honeycombs. These forms exist in nature and the ancients emulated these geometries in the construction of their sacred architecture. It is possible that there is something special and mysterious about the number 3. It is possible that Tesla discovered this secret and used this knowledge to go further. the boundaries of science and technology in its various experiments.
The magnificence of the number 9
Let's assume that there are 2 opposites, we call them light and dark if we want. They are like the opposite poles, positive and negative, of a magnet.
One side is represented by the numbers 1, 2 and 4; the other side by numbers 8, 7 and 5;
Just like electricity, everything in the universe is a flow between these two polar opposites, like a swinging pendulum: 1, 2, 4, 8, 7, 5, 1, 2 ... (and if you imagine the movement is something similar to the infinity symbol).
However, these two sides are ruled by 3 and 6; 3 rules 1, 2, and 4, while 6 rules 8, 7, and 5; and if you look closely at the model it becomes even more complicated:
1 and 2 is equal to 3; 2 and 4 equal 6; 4 and 8 is equal to 3 (4 + 8 = 12; 1 + 2 = 3); 8 and 7 equals 6; 7 and 5 is equal to 3; 5 and 1 is equal to 6; 1 and 2 is equal to 3 ...
The same model on a higher scale is actually 3, 6, 3, 6, 3, 6 ...
But even these two sides, 3 and 6 are ruled by 9 which shows something spectacular.
Looking closely at pattern 3 and 6 you realize that 3 and 6 equals 9, 6 and 3 equals 9, all numbers together equals 9, in both directions.
This means that 9 is the unity of both sides, 9 is the universe itself.
Peace Allessendro,
Ken
ps - for any sort of "political arrangement" involving discrete members, my preference is 5. I think 5 is the best for this, but I could be wrong. I think 5 is the number that goes from 2-dimensional to 3-dimensional in a way, and I've tried to expound on this elsewhere.
“Light is everything. In one of its rays is the destiny of nations, each action has its own ray in that great source of light that we see as the sun. And remember that there is no man who has existed and who is not dead! "
JOURNALIST: Mr. Tesla, you have earned the fame of the man who has gone into cosmic processes. Who are you, Mr. Tesla?
TESLA: It's an interesting question, Mr. Smith, and I try to give you an adequate answer.
JOURNALIST: They say you come from Croatia, from the area called Lika, where people grow together with trees, rocks and the starry sky. They say that her hometown bears the name of the mountain firi, and that the house where she was born is located near the forest and the church.
TESLA: Really everything you said is the truth. I am proud of my Serbian origin and my Croatian homeland.
JOURNALIST: The futurists say that the twentieth century and the twenty-first century were born in the head of Nikola Tesla. They celebrate the inverse magnetic field and sing hymns to the induction motor. His creator was called "the hunter who caught light in his nets from the depths of the earth" and "the warrior who caught fire from heaven". He is said to be the father of alternating current, the one who will make physics and chemistry dominate half the world.
The industry will proclaim him its supreme saint, a banker for the greatest benefactors. In Nikola Tesla's laboratory, an atom has been split for the first time. A weapon has been created that produces seismic vibrations. There, black cosmic rays were discovered. Five races will worship him in the future, because he taught them a great secret: that the elements of Empedocles can be irrigated with the vital forces of the ethers.
TESLA: Yes, these are some of my most important discoveries. Even so, I am a defeated man. I was unable to achieve the greatest of my goals.
JOURNALIST: What would this desire be, Mr. Tesla?
TESLA: I would like to illuminate the whole earth. There is enough electricity to create a second sun. Light would appear around the equator, like the ring around Saturn.
Humanity is not ready for greatness.
In Colorado Springs, I impregnated the earth with electricity.
We could also spread other energies, such as the positive mental energy found in the music of Bach or Mozart, or in the verses of the great poets. Inside the Earth there are energies of joy, peace and love that are expressed for example through a fire that grows from the earth, the foods that come out of it and everything that makes it the home of man.
I spent years looking for ways to get this energy to affect people. The beauty and aroma of roses can be used as a medicine and the sun's rays as a food. Life has an infinite number of forms and the duty of scientists is to find them in all forms of matter. Three things are essential in this regard. All I do is look for them. I know I won't find them, but I won't give them up anyway.
JOURNALIST: What are these things?
TESLA: One problem is food. What energy, stellar or terrestrial, can feed the hungry of the Earth? With what wine can all thirst be quenched, so that people can encourage their hearts and understand that they are gods? Another thing is to destroy the power of evil and the suffering in which man spends his life! Sometimes it occurs like an epidemic in the depths of space. In this century the disease has spread from the Earth to the Universe.
The third thing is: is there an excess of light in the Universe?
I discovered a star that according to astronomical and mathematical laws could disappear, and even then nothing would change. That star is in this galaxy. Its light can be emitted with such density that it concentrates in a sphere smaller than an apple and at the same time heavier than our Solar System. Religions and philosophers teach that man can come to be Christ, Buddha and Zarathustra.
JOURNALIST: Your admirers complain that you are attacking the theory of relativity. The strange thing is his assertion that matter has no energy. Everything is imbued with energy, where is it?
TESLA: First there was energy and after that there was matter.
JOURNALIST: Mr. Tesla, it's like when he said that you were born of your father and not of himself.
TESLA: Exactly! What happens in the birth of the Universe? Matter is created from the original and eternal energy that we know as light. It shone and the stars, planets, man and everything on the Earth and in the Universe appeared. Matter is an expression of the infinite forms of light, because energy is older than it. There are four laws of Creation.
JOURNALIST: In hostility to the Theory of Relativity, you go so far that you hold conferences against your creator on his birthday party
TESLA: Remember: space does not bend, but the human mind that cannot understand infinity and eternity! If relativity was clearly understood by its creator, he would have gained immortality even physically, if this pleased him. I am part of a light which is music. Light fills my six senses: I see, hear, hear, smell, touch and think. Thinking about her is my sixth sense. Particles of light are written notes. A ray can be an entire sonata. A thousand lightnings are a concert. For this concert I created a series of flashes that can be heard on the frozen peaks of the Himalayas. As for Pythagoras and mathematics, a scientist cannot and must not violate these two things.
Numbers and equations are signs that mark the music of the spheres. If Einstein had listened to those sounds, he would not have created the Theory of Relativity.These sounds are messages directed to the mind communicating that life has meaning, that the Universe exists in perfect harmony, and its beauty is the cause and the effect of Creation. This music is the eternal cycle of the stellar skies. The smaller star completed the composition and is also part of the celestial symphony. The beats of the human heart are part of the symphony of the Earth. Newton learned that the secret lies in the geometric arrangement and movement of celestial bodies. He recognized that the supreme law of harmony exists in the Universe. Curved space is chaos, chaos is not music. Einstein is the messenger of the age of noise and fury.
JOURNALIST: Mr. Tesla, do you hear that music?
TESLA: I always listen to it. My spiritual hearing is as large as the sky we see above us. I increased my natural hearing with radar. In accordance with the Theory of Relativity, two parallel lines will meet in infinity. For that reason Einstein's curvature of space will straighten out. Once created, the sound lasts forever, for a man it can disappear, but it continues to exist in silence, which is the greatest power of man. No, I have nothing against Mr. Einstein. He is a very kind person and has done many good things, some of which will become part of the music. I will write to him and try to explain to him that the ether exists, and that his particles are those that keep the universe in harmony, and life in eternity.
...................
JOURNALIST: I am going to ask you a question that could have been asked at the beginning of this conversation: what was electricity for you, dear Mr. Tesla?
TESLA: Everything is electricity. At the beginning it was light, the endless source from which matter comes and is distributed towards all the forms that represent the Universe and the Earth with all its aspects of life. Black is the true face of the Light, we just don't see it. It is a remarkable grace for man and other creatures. Each of their particles possesses light, thermal, nuclear force, radiation, chemistry, mechanics and as yet unidentified energy. It has the power to create the Earth with its orbit. It is the authentic lever of Archimedes.
JOURNALIST: Mr. Tesla, you are too biased towards electricity.
TESLA: They are electricity. Or, if you prefer, I am light in human form. You are electricity too, Mr. Smith, but you don't realize it.
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