LPTs, which emit radio pulses that occur minutes or hours apart, are a relatively recent discovery. Since their first detection by ICRAR researchers in 2022, ten LPTs have been discovered by astronomers across the world.
Currently, there is no clear explanation for what causes these signals, or why they ‘switch on’ and ‘switch off’ at such long, regular and unusual intervals.
This latest discovery is unlike any of the others – it could be a magnetar, the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields, or it could be a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetised white dwarf.
The discovery also helps narrow down what the objects might be. Since X-rays are much higher energy than radio waves, any theory must account for both types of emission – a valuable clue, given their nature remains a cosmic mystery.
I’ll be deep diving on this story when Associate Professor Clancy James beams in.
