New Type of Star Discovered – COOL HUNTING®

Located about 4,000 light-years from the sun, a “mysterious, flickering object” that emits huge amounts of energy every few hours has been discovered. Astronomers watched as the object—named GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3—brightened, dimmed and disappeared before reappearing and brightening again, and assumed it was a supernova (a dying star) or a neutron star (an already-dead star) but found that it’s neither. In fact, it could be a new type of star. The lead study author Natasha Hurley-Walker (a radio astronomer) says, “This object was appearing and disappearing over a few hours during our observations. That was completely unexpected. It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that.” Find out more at Live Science.

Image courtesy of ICRAR