Astronomers Spot Star Emitting Both Radio & X-ray Pulses

In May 2025, Astronomers discovered a unique star in the Milky Way galaxy, about 15,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Scutum. It exhibits an unprecedented combination of radio wave and X-ray emissions, flashing every 44 minutes — a behavior never observed before.

Key Points

Long-Period Radio Transient: The star belongs to a rare class of celestial objects identified only in the past three years, known for emitting bright radio bursts spaced minutes to hours apart.
X-Ray Surprise: Unlike others in its class, this is the first object to also emit X-rays, detected serendipitously by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Possible Nature: Scientists speculate it could be a magnetar (a neutron star with an intense magnetic field) or a white dwarf in a close binary system — though neither theory fully explains the behavior.
Rare Brightness Spike: The star became dramatically bright in radio waves in early 2024, placing it among fewer than 30 such intensely bright sources ever recorded.
Lucky Observation: The X-ray detection was a chance event — Chandra was focused elsewhere when it captured the star in its “crazy” bright phase, likened by scientists to “finding a needle in a haystack.”