Something strange is happening around our galaxy. Less than 12 million light years from the Milky Way, a mysterious object has begun to emit radio waves, and in a way that was unknown in the Universe.The astronomers are wondering what might be causing these strange broadcasts, which are not compatible with any of the phenomen and known structures.
Perhaps, scientists say, radio waves are due to the nature of the galaxy where the foreign issuer. M82 is indeed a “starburst galaxy”, within which the birth rate of stars is much higher than a normal galaxy.
For this reason, M82 is up to five times brighter than the Milky Way. However, after a year of intense observation, the reality is that nobody knows yet what can be treated.
A body whose extraordinary features also adds another surprise: it is that its apparent speed is four times the speed of light.”The new object, which appeared in May 2009, left us scratching our heads. We had never even seen anything like it,” Muxlow said. What they have been doing since then researchers to study some of its features. For example, rotation: “The object rotates very quickly, once every few days, and its luster has not dimmed since signals were detected.” A fact that can be ruled out that a young supernova, which is otherwise common in M82 type galaxies. but if so, would star in radio wavelengths for only a few weeks off after a few months, something that is not happening in the new object, whose brightness remains constant.
The object, which was not even given a name yet, was discovered by chance while Muxlow and colleagues studied a stellar explosion in the galaxy M82 using the UK MERLIN network of radio telescopes. And he found with this powerful transmitter that, unlike supernovae, not fade away, but the intensity was changing its brightness over a year, maintaining a constant spectrum.
Whatever it is, also is moving. And very quickly, because its apparent speed is four times the speed of light, which is one million two hundred thousand km. per second. However, the object in question is near the center of M82, where the large central black hole can eject matter at similar apparent velocities, but in its periphery, where this kind of relativistic phenomen are not at all possible.
Can the characteristics of M82, which as mentioned is a galaxy with a high rate of star formation, allowing the existence of these objects, unknown in all other galaxies.
“We have just started to process the data in the central region of M82 from 20 radio telescopes around the world,” Muxlow said. These images allow us to examine the structure of this new radio source in more detail.