An international team of astronomers has detected a bizarre cosmic object that pulses with both radio waves and X-rays—something never seen before. Known as ASKAP J1832-0911, this “long-period transient” flashes every 44 minutes and could unveil entirely new physics or models of stellar life cycles.
What’s even more incredible is the chance overlap between two telescopes, on opposite sides of the Earth, catching it in the act, suggesting that many more such strange objects could be waiting to be found.
Startling Discovery in Deep Space
Astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), working with global teams, have made an exciting discovery about a mysterious cosmic object unlike anything seen before.
The object, named ASKAP J1832-0911, sends out bursts of radio waves and X-rays that last two minutes and repeat every 44 minutes. It sits about 15,000 light-years from Earth, deep within our Milky Way galaxy.
This is the first time scientists have seen one of these objects, called long-period transients, emitting X-rays. Researchers believe it could help unlock the secrets behind other strange signals observed throughout the universe.
The discovery happened thanks to a bit of cosmic luck. While scanning the sky with the ASKAP radio telescope in Australia, scientists detected radio bursts. At the same time, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory was observing the same part of the sky and picked up X-ray flashes coming from the exact same location.
A Rare Cosmic Coincidence
“Discovering that ASKAP J1832-0911 was emitting X-rays felt like finding a needle in a haystack,” said lead author Dr. Ziteng (Andy) Wang from the Curtin University node of ICRAR.
“The ASKAP radio telescope has a wide field view of the night sky, while Chandra observes only a fraction of it. So, it was fortunate that Chandra observed the same area of the night sky at the same time.”
LPTs, which emit radio pulses that occur minutes or hours apart, are a relatively recent discovery. Since their first detection by ICRAR researchers in 2022, ten LPTs have been discovered by astronomers across the world.
Currently, there is no clear explanation for what causes these signals, or why they ‘switch on’ and ‘switch off’ at such long, regular, and unusual intervals.
Theories and Unsolved Mysteries
“This object is unlike anything we have seen before,” Dr. Wang said.
“ASKAP J1831-0911 could be a magnetar (the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields), or it could be a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetised white dwarf (a low-mass star at the end of its evolution).
“However, even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing. This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution.”
Detecting these objects using both X-rays and radio waves may help astronomers find more examples and learn more about them.
According to second author Professor Nanda Rea from the Institute of Space Science (ICE-CSIC) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) in Spain, “Finding one such object hints at the existence of many more. The discovery of its transient X-ray emission opens fresh insights into their mysterious nature.”
“What was also truly remarkable is that this study showcases an incredible teamwork effort, with contributions from researchers across the globe with different and complementary expertise,” she said.
Clues Hidden in High-Energy Emissions
The discovery also helps narrow down what the objects might be. Since X-rays are much higher energy than radio waves, any theory must account for both types of emission – a valuable clue, given their nature remains a cosmic mystery.
Explore Further: This Mysterious “Star” Pulses Every 44 Minutes
Reference: “Detection of X-ray emission from a bright long-period radio transient” by Ziteng Wang, Nanda Rea, Tong Bao, David L. Kaplan, Emil Lenc, Zorawar Wadiasingh, Jeremy Hare, Andrew Zic, Akash Anumarlapudi, Apurba Bera, Paz Beniamini, A. J. Cooper, Tracy E. Clarke, Adam T. Deller, J. R. Dawson, Marcin Glowacki, Natasha Hurley-Walker, S. J. McSweeney, Emil J. Polisensky, Wendy M. Peters, George Younes, Keith W. Bannister, Manisha Caleb, Kristen C. Dage, Clancy W. James, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Viraj Karambelkar, Marcus E. Lower, Kaya Mori, Stella Koch Ocker, Miguel Pérez-Torres, Hao Qiu, Kovi Rose, Ryan M. Shannon, Rhianna Taub, Fayin Wang, Yuanming Wang, Zhenyin Zhao, N. D. Ramesh Bhat, Dougal Dobie, Laura N. Driessen, Tara Murphy, Akhil Jaini, Xinping Deng, Joscha N. Jahns-Schindler, Y. W. Joshua Lee, Joshua Pritchard, John Tuthill and Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, 28 May 2025, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09077-w
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3 Comments
X-rays a bit out phase with the radio waves.
You are thinking of beats?
Beats happen when the two frequencies are close to each other.
Here, the X-ray frequency is a million to billion times higher. Also, radio telescopes won’t see the tiny squiggles of the X-ray. Likewise X-ray telescopes can’t detect radio waves.
“Might rewrite physics?” Pulllze…