this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Something in space has been lighting up every 20 minutes since 1988 (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by very_well_lost to c/space
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

On Wednesday, researchers announced the discovery of a new astronomical enigma. The new object, GPM J1839–10, behaves a bit like a pulsar, sending out regular bursts of radio energy. But the physics that drives pulsars means that they'd stop emitting if they slowed down too much, and almost every pulsar we know of blinks at least once per minute.

GPM J1839–10 takes 22 minutes between pulses. We have no idea what kind of physics or what kind of objects can power that.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

GPM J1839–10 takes 22 minutes between pulses. We have no idea what kind of physics or what kind of objects can power that.

[Googles name of object.] 2nd result:

The newfound object is a type of neutron star known as a magnetar.

Science!

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Read the article:

Another option involving them is the magnetar, a neutron star with an intense magnetic field that's prone to energetic outbursts. But those outbursts also generate more energetic photons, and the researchers checked the site of GPM J1839–10 with an X-ray telescope and saw nothing. Plus, magnetars are thought to rotate more quickly than the 22-minute gap implies, so they're probably out as well.

Just because some random Google result says it’s a magnetar doesn’t make it true. Considering the team that discovered it doesn’t make that claim and as far as I’m aware no one else has looked at this particular star, I think it unlikely that there’s a definitive, widely accepted explanation.

[–] XeroxCool 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is why I don't trust Google excerpt results or Ai answers despite being widely accepted. They miss nuance

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

These days I feel like they're flat out wrong nearly a third of the time

[–] raltoid 1 points 1 year ago

That's the most likely answer, but they're not certain. As they don't even have a solid theory of how a star can spin so slowly and still be this active.