New ‘sign of alien life’ as mysterious radio waves burst from space and scientists say it’s ‘unlike anything we’ve seen’

Scientists have discovered a mysterious cosmic entity called ASKAP J1832-0911, located about 15,000 light-years away in the Milky Way galaxy. This object is emitting radio waves and X-rays every 44 minutes for two minutes at a time, making it a unique find in the field of astronomy.

ASKAP J1832-0911 is classified as a long-period transient (LPT), a type of object that was only recently discovered in 2022. Since then, only 10 LPTs have been found worldwide, and ASKAP J1832-0911 stands out from the rest due to its X-ray emissions. The discovery was made using the ASKAP radio telescope in Australia and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The scientists behind the discovery are unsure what this object could be, but they have a few theories. It could be a magnetar, which is the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields, or a pair of stars in a binary system where one is a highly magnetized white dwarf. However, even these theories don't fully explain the observations.

The discovery of ASKAP J1832-0911's X-ray emissions was a matter of luck, as the Chandra X-ray Observatory happened to be observing the same area of the sky at the same time as the ASKAP radio telescope. According to Dr. Andy Ziteng Wang, lead author of the study, "Discovering that ASKAP J1832-0911 was emitting X-rays felt like finding a needle in a haystack". This discovery could potentially indicate new physics or models of stellar evolution.

The study's findings open up fresh insights into the mysterious nature of LPTs. Professor Nanda Rea from the Institute of Space Science praised the teamwork that went into the discovery, highlighting the collaboration between researchers from around the globe with different expertise. The discovery of ASKAP J1832-0911 could lead to the detection of many more similar objects, shedding light on the unknown properties of LPTs.