The powerful emissions from celestial beacons known as pulsars are far more energetic than previously believed, raising questions about the energy sources driving them.

An extensive analysis conducted by the High Energy Stereoscopic System array in Namibia has unveiled a pulsar emitting radiation at a remarkable 20 trillion electron volts, marking it as the most energetically active pulsar ever observed.

This discovery, reported on October 5 in Nature Astronomy, challenges the current understanding of how pulsars can produce such extraordinarily high levels of radiation, Science News reported.

According to Hayk Hakobyan, an astrophysicist at Columbia University not involved in the study, this observation is “remarkable” and essentially serves as a rigorous test for the validity of existing scientific theories.

Pulsars are the compact remnants left behind by supernova explosions, emitting focused beams of light while rotating at speeds of up to hundreds of times per second.

These intriguing cosmic objects were initially identified in the late 1960s when scientists detected an incredibly regular pulse of radio waves, leading to some speculation that it might be an extraterrestrial communication signal.

Written by staff