New Type Of Mysterious Round Objects In The Universe
Finally, we get a summer mystery from the Universe. Odd Radio Circles that do not correspond to any previously known structures have been detected. So, what could they be?
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We have found many strange things in the Universe. Some are completely unbelievable. Yet, when looking through telescopes we still keep finding new mysteries that take our breaths away. And this is exactly the case of the newest catch of radioastronomers.
Odd Round Discovery
The lucky ones come from an international team of astrophysicists Ray Norris from Western Sydney University. They discovered ORCs (Odd Radio Circles). And these circles are really odd. So far, we have found four of these circles. All of them have a round shape and three of them have a surprisingly bright edge – almost as if they were some kind of a ring system.
As the researchers say – round objects aren’t that special when it comes to radio-astronomy. Usually, we see ball-shaped objects – such as the remains of a supernova, planetary nebulas, or even protoplanetary disks (if seen from a certain angle) – as round. And sometimes, round objects are also created by faults in the system. But the ORCs do not seem to correspond to any known objects or problems which the scientists have seen before. They are something new.
The ORCs were first seen in the data coming from the Pilot Survey of the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) from 2019 which was done by one of the most sensitive radiotelescope arrays in the world – the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). First, they found just a single odd circle and thought it was some mistake. So, they looked one more time – and it was still there.
The first option explored was the chance that it was all just a mistake on the radiotelescope array. But this option was soon disproved as old data from another array – Giant MetreWave Radio Telescope in India – from 2013 brought the discovery of the fourth ORC. Plus, the discovery was further confirmed by the objects being observed by another radiotelescope array, this time the Australia Telescope Compact Array.
The ORCs are strange. Very strange. They can be found in high galactic latitudes. On the sky, they have a size of roughly one arc minute (about 3% of the size of a full Moon) That doesn’t mean much as we do not know how far away from us they are. All four of the ORCs are visible only in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum. No x-rays, no visible light, no infrared wavelengths. Nothing. Maybe they are connected to some galaxy activity but we just aren’t sure.
So, what are the OCRs? The scientists think they are events that took placed outside the Milky Way. They remind them of gigantic ball-shaped shockwaves of some wild and seriously massive events. They could be caused by the things that cause fast radio bursts, gamma rays bursts, or the mergers of neutron stars. But that doesn’t correspond to the predicted sizes of the objects. They are too large so the source would have to be incredibly far away.
Another option that they are a new category of already known phenomena such as radio-galaxies or blazars. Interestingly enough, similar discoveries often carry the option that there are more possible causes. But soon, we should know more as Norris and his colleagues are working hard on already have another six possible candidates for less bright ORCs.
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