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A long-period radio transient active for three decades
de Martino, D.; Heywood, I.; Rea, N. +22 more
Several long-period radio transients have recently been discovered, with strongly polarized coherent radio pulses appearing on timescales between tens to thousands of seconds1,2. In some cases, the radio pulses have been interpreted as coming from rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, known as magnetars; the orig…
X-ray polarization evidence for a 200-year-old flare of Sgr A*
Ingram, Adam; Kaaret, Philip; Wu, Kinwah +101 more
The centre of the Milky Way Galaxy hosts a black hole with a solar mass of about 4 million (Sagittarius A* (Sgr A)) that is very quiescent at present with a luminosity many orders of magnitude below those of active galactic nuclei1. Reflection of X-rays from Sgr A* by dense gas in the Galactic Centre region offers …
A helium-burning white dwarf binary as a supersoft X-ray source
Burgess, J. M.; Werner, K.; Haberl, F. +12 more
Type Ia supernovae are cosmic distance indicators1,2, and the main source of iron in the Universe3,4, but their formation paths are still debated. Several dozen supersoft X-ray sources, in which a white dwarf accretes hydrogen-rich matter from a non-degenerate donor star, have been observed5 and suggested as Type I…