It's not clear what is causing the waves but they have been picked up on several times in the last few months.
Main: Astronomers Discover Radio Waves Coming From the Center of the Milky Way
Suhead: It's not clear what is causing the waves but they have been picked up on several times in the last few months.
Astronomers have recently detected radio signals coming from the center of the Milky Way, and scientists have no clue of their origin, according to a study in the Astrophysical Journal.
A team of scientists discovered the waves with a CSIRO radio telescope in Western Australia, CBS News reported. The team initially thought the waves were coming from a pulsar, a spinning dead star, but Ziteng Wang, the lead author of the study and a PhD student at the University of Sydney, said that turned out not to be the case, according to a press release.
"The strangest property of this new signal is that it has a very high polarisation," Wang said. "This means its light oscillates in only one direction, but that direction rotates with time."
Wang added that they have “never seen anything like it."
The radio signal, which has been named ASKAP J173608.2-321635, was invisible and then appeared before disappearing again. Scientists called the behavior “extraordinary.”
Thus far the signal has been detected six times over nine months, but they haven’t been able to find the object in visible light. They’re still not sure where it’s coming from.
