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.
This is super neat. I hope they’re able to figure out what it is.
Spin on the Y axis? We wouldn’t see what isn’t shot at us.
Road trip! Let’s go check it out!
22 minute pulses? Someone out there is playing through Outer Wilds.
It’s our galactic smoke detector signaling that it needs a new battery.
