Mysterious radio pulsar beats every 36 minutes ⚡ экспресс
A new long-period radio transient, ASKAP J142431.2-612611, with a period of 36 minutes has been discovered. The source was identified in the EMU survey using ASKAP, and follow-up observations with ATCA revealed pulsed emission lasting eight days, after which it ceased. No optical or infrared counterparts were found in archival surveys or targeted Gemini South observations. During the active phase, the pulse profile is stable, the degree of polarization is close to 100%, and its state evolves from elliptical to linear, tracing a great-circle arc on the Poincaré sphere. This behavior is consistent with a model of intrinsically fully linearly polarized emission passing through a linearly birefringent medium. This discovery expands the known population of long-period transients and underscores the intermittent nature of their activity. Implications for theoretical models and directions for future research are discussed.
Astronomers caught a signal from a cosmic lighthouse — a radio pulsar with a period of 36 minutes. Unlike ordinary pulsars (neutron stars that spin hundreds of times per second), this one barely turned. It transmitted pulses for only eight days and vanished, visible only in the radio range.
The radio waves turned out to be 100% polarized — such orderliness is rare in nature. Their plane of oscillation rotated smoothly, tracing a circle on the Poincaré sphere. Apparently, the radiation is born strictly directed, and the object's magnetic field twists it further.
This source could be a neutron star with an extreme magnetic field or even a white dwarf radio pulsar. The brevity of the flash hints that such beacons are numerous in the Galaxy, but we only notice them when they briefly turn on.
🎯 A 36-minute period is so vast that an ordinary pulsar would need longer than the age of the Universe to slow down that much.