WASHINGTON, D.C. — Researchers from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) were part of a global effort to track newly discovered unusual bursts of radio emission from an object within the Milky Way galaxy. Information from telescopes in Australia, India, South Africa, and the United States were all used to help identify the object.
In a paper published to the journal Nature on May 28 , the international team announced the discovery of the new object, known as ASKAP J1832-091. This new object emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays lasting two minutes and recurring every 44 minutes. Called a long-period transient, or LPT, the object is located about 15,000 light-years from Earth.
LPTs that emit radio waves occurring minutes or hours apart are a relatively recent discovery, but this is the first time an LPT has been detected in X-rays.
"The discovery of energetic X-rays from this new LPT is another important puzzle piece in astronomers' quest to understand these mysterious objects," said Tracy Clarke, Ph.D., in NRL's Remote Sensing Division .
ASKAP J1832-0911 was first discovered by astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia using the ASKAP radio telescope , which is owned and operated by Australia's national science agency, CSIRO. They correlated the radio signals with X-ray pulses detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory , which was coincidentally observing the same part of the sky.
Clarke along with Wendy Peters, Ph.D., and Emil Polisensky, Ph.D., searched archival data from NRL's VLA Low-band Ionosphere and Transient Experiment ( VLITE ) and identified additional radio signals from the same object.
"The VLITE data were recorded just one day after the first-ever LPT X-ray detection was made," Clarke said. "NRL researchers applied advanced processing algorithms to the VLITE data and detected two intense consecutive bursts of radio emission from ASKAP J1832-0911."
NRL's findings from VLITE data combined with ASKAP telescope detections that were made eight days before the X-ray detection confirm that ASKAP J1832-0911 remained in an exceptionally bright radio emitting state during the X-ray burst.
Other sources also helped corroborate the findings including South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope and India's Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) .
The lead author of the paper Ziteng (Andy) Wang, Ph.D., from the Curtin University node of ICRAR, said it was "like finding a needle in a haystack."
Second author, Professor Nanda Rea from the Institute of Space Science (ICE-CSIC) and Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) in Spain, called the effort truly remarkable.
"This study showcases an incredible teamwork effort, with contributions from researchers across the globe with different and complementary expertise," Rea said.
About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL, located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.
