Overview

• ASKAP J1832-0911 cycles through two-minute bursts of radio waves and X-rays every 44 minutes, recorded by Australia’s ASKAP array and NASA’s Chandra Observatory.
• Situated about 15,000 light-years away in the Scutum constellation, it marks the first member of its class to emit detectable X-ray pulses.
• Six months after initial detection, follow-up observations found its radio output 1,000 times fainter and X-ray emission absent.
• Researchers are weighing interpretations that include an aging magnetar, an ultra-magnetized white dwarf in a binary system, or a novel type of celestial object.
• Astronomers are organizing rapid multiwavelength campaigns to decode its emission mechanism and hunt for other long-period transients.