Mysterious radio pulsar beats every 36 minutes ⚡ экспресс
Astronomers have discovered a new long-period radio transient with a period of 36 minutes. It emitted pulses for only eight days, then fell silent; the source is invisible in optical and infrared light. The signal was almost 100% polarized, and its polarization switched from elliptical to linear, like the hand of a celestial clock. This behavior is explained by waves passing through a medium akin to a polarizing filter. This expands the zoo of mysterious transients and highlights their unpredictable activity.
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.