The Mystery of the 21-Minute Pulsar

Astronomers discovered a new long-period (21-minute) radio transient called GPM J1839–10, with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). Follow-up observations were done using other telescopes, including the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), Parkes/Murriyang radio telescope, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), and MeerKAT. The pulses from GPM J1839–10 vary in brightness, last between 30 and 300 seconds, and have quasiperiodic substructure. Archival data revealed that this source has been repeating since at least 1988. Publication: Hurley-Walker, N. et al. A long-period radio transient active for three decades. Nature , 57–62 (2023) Acknowledgements: Podcast created with Google/NotebookLM. Image credits: Olena Shmahalo