Scientists explained the peculiarity of the unknown signal from space

On June 5, Australian scientists published in the journal Nature a study of a radio transient (radio-emitting cosmic object – ed.) with a period of 54 minutes, which was designated as ASKAP 1935+2148.

Long-period radio transients are a new class of extreme astrophysical events, of which only three are known.

During this radio transient, a strong polarized pulse lasting 10-50 seconds, a weaker (26 times) pulse lasting 370 milliseconds and then an interval without pulses were recorded. Researchers have speculated that the signal may be emitted by a white dwarf (fading star) or a magnetar (neutron star), but no consensus has emerged.

For lovers of the search for extraterrestrial civilizations, the good or bad news is that exotic transients like this do not differ from the signals of civilizations in principle. That is, if there's nothing else to do, enthusiasts can already be walking around with “We found them!” posters.

Astronomers are very likely to refuse to confirm that this is a signal from extraterrestrials, because scientists are not familiar with magnetars.

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There are several telescopes in orbit that operate in the X-ray range. When a signal arrives from space from some object – a flash of X-rays, the telescopes receive a message to look in one direction or another. There, the approximate coordinates of where the source of X-ray radiation should be are determined.

The Australian radio telescope was able to target and observe the signal source in the radio range.

Using optical telescopes, it is only possible to confirm that this object is also observed in the optical range. However, this is a very rare phenomenon. Only two or three out of ten thousand such messages were successful, it was possible to fix only a few objects in the optical range.