The pulsing signal that’s puzzling astronomers
There are several pulsating objects in the universe. But one about 15,000 light-years away was recently detected – pulsing and a puzzlingly-powerful rate
It could possibly be a pulsar – a spinning star ejecting beams of energy from its poles, picked up by observatories. All pulsars are neutron stars, and they spin and emit waves of energy in the galaxy. Even the slowest of pulsars spin at several minutes per revolution and rotate several times a second.
Terry Oswalt, the Associate Dean and Professor at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University explained that the object recently found in interstellar space is more powerful than any other pulsar they’ve seen before.
“The fact that this is a relatively slow rotator and really bright, not just in radio, but now also an x-ray, it far exceeds anything known in the hundreds of pulsars that we know about so far,” said Oswalt. “It's spectacularly more energetic despite a relatively slow rotation rate.”
The unknown object was first thought to be a pulsar, but scientists later proposed it might be a magnetar—an exceptionally rare type of neutron star with an intense magnetic field. A magnetar’s magnetic field can be just as large as the Earth or the Sun.
Although this object may fit some of the criteria for a magnetar, according to Oswalt, there are still a lot of other possibilities.
“But the problem is, the radio luminosity is 10,000 times brighter than any known similar magnetar,” said Oswalt. “So, this is an outlier even in the esoteric regime of magnetars.”
The next step for researchers is more observations and getting more mathematical models made to better understand this object and future space discoveries.
“The models that exist could be adapted to explain some of the peculiarities,” said Oswalt. “So, when you see scientists making changes in their explanation, you're seeing science being done. That's how it works.”
But if it’s unlike anything seen before, could it be a far-away, alien civilization signaling planet Earth? Probably not, said Oswalt.
Axiom’s upcoming mission and one astronaut’s experience journeying into space
The fourth private spaceflight mission from Axiom was delayed due to weather and hardware problems. Now, an issue at the International Space Station has the crew of four grounded.
Eventually, the Ax-4 crew will fly SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
Ahead of this mission, the crews’ lives are always at risk. Astronaut John Shoffner, who piloted Axiom’s Ax-2 pilot said despite these delays, he is confident that SpaceX will handle them accordingly.
“And of course, SpaceX is understanding of their hardware,” Shoffner said. “They design it, they build it, and things like leaks or small changes in the vehicle are expected. You know, these are dynamic pieces of equipment, and these have been reused. So not a challenge to SpaceX to fix it.”
The leak was in the Falcon 9’s booster. Additional, the International Space Station is also dealing with a leak. Because of these leaks, NASA and Axiom delayed the mission, now targeting a launch window no earlier than Thursday, June 19.
“The thing that you expect in space flight, more than anything, is change,” Shoffner said. “It's the one constant in space flight; change in the schedule, change in what the expectations are. For the crew, I think they have been preparing long enough that they certainly understand that changes in the schedule even for an entire week.”
With companies like SpaceX and Axiom working with NASA, Shoffner said he’s enjoying watching space exploration grow and evolve with the space agency and commercial space companies.
“As NASA continues its progress toward taking us to the moon in several different forms, then we just see that growing in momentum, growing, and then we look forward to rotating to Mars,” Shoffner said. “Focusing on our efforts to get to Mars at some point.”
