Astronomers have detected objects in space that turn on and off before, as they are typically the death of a massive star or what's left of one. Curtin astrophysicist and co-author Gemma Anderson said these flashes of lights are called transients.
But what makes this object unusual is that it doesn't behave like a transient. A slow transient would have energy bursts that occur over the course of a few days before disappearing for months at a time. Fast transients flash on and off within milliseconds or seconds, so seeing one flash for up to a minute would be unprecedented.
The team does have guesses as to what it can be, but they still aren't exactly sure. One idea Hurley-Walker has is it could be an "ultra-long period magnetar," a type of slowly spinning neutron star with a strong magnetic field. However, it was something thought to only...