Scientists Baffled By Strange Radio Waves Coming From The Milky Way

Astronomers have identified mysterious radio waves originating from the center of the Milky Way, but are unable to determine what — or, perhaps, who — is responsible for these signals.

Greetings, Earthlings? According to a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal, a team of scientists from seven countries discovered radio signal — named ASKAP J173608.2-321635 after its coordinates — using the CSIRO radio telescope in Western Australia.

Ziteng Wang, the study’s lead author and a PhD student at the University of Sydney, initially believed the signal could be from a rotating dead star called a pulsar, but the radio waves were shown to be of a different nature.

"The strangest property of this new signal is that it is has a very high polarization," Wang said. "This means its light oscillates in only one direction, but that direction rotates with time.

"The brightness of the object also varies dramatically, by a factor of 100, and the signal switches on and off apparently at random. We've never seen anything like it."

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E.T., Phone Home? The scientists detected six radio signals from the source during a nine-month span in 2020, but were unable to locate the object in visual light.

"The information we do have has some parallels with another emerging class of mysterious objects known as Galactic Centre Radio Transients, including one dubbed the ‘cosmic burper,’" said David Kaplan, a professor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who served as Wang’s co-supervisor on this study.

"While our new object, ASKAP J173608.2-321635, does share some properties with GCRTs there are also differences. And we don't really understand those sources, anyway, so this adds to the mystery."

Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros.