A strange cosmic object known as the "Blinking Unicorn" has captured the attention of astronomers. It was discovered emitting bizarre bursts of radio waves from deep within the Milky Way. 

Officially known as CHIME J1634+44, this rare object is unlike anything scientists have seen before — and it's forcing a major rethink of how dead stars behave.

The Blinking Unicorn: A Rare Cosmic Oddity

Astronomers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) recently announced the discovery of CHIME J1634+44, affectionately nicknamed the Blinking Unicorn due to its rare and mysterious characteristics. 

This spinning dead star emits pulsing radio transmissions, which is a typical behavior of pulsars, but the object itself breaks almost every rule associated with known pulsars.

"You could call CHIME J1634+44 a 'unicorn', even among other LPTs," said Fengqiu Adam Dong of Green Bank Observatory, the lead author on one of the published papers.

This strange star is located several thousand light-years away and exhibits an overlapping dual pulse period: every 841 seconds (about 14 minutes) and a secondary pulse every 4,206 seconds (70 minutes)—exactly five times the shorter cycle. Even more unusually, its spin is speeding up rather than slowing down, an anomaly that baffles current models.

Long-Period Transients and Extreme Polarization

CHIME J1634+44 belongs to a very rare class known as long-period transients (LPTs) — stars that emit periodic bursts of light over unusually long timescales. Only a dozen or so LPTs have been discovered in our galaxy, and this one might be the most unique of all.

What’s more, the light emitted from CHIME J1634+44 is the most polarized ever observed in an LPT, indicating a highly complex surrounding environment. Scientists are particularly intrigued by the perfectly circular polarization of its radio pulses — something never seen before.

“The discovery of CHIME J1634+44 expands the known population of LPTs and challenges existing models of neutron stars and white dwarfs,” Dong said.

https://usaherald.com/privacy-concerns-23andme-restructures-as-nonprofit-with-acquisition-by-ttam-research-institute/

A Neutron Star… or a White Dwarf Pulsar?

Two independent research teams—one led by Dong and another by Sanne Bloot from the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy—detected CHIME J1634+44 separately but reached similar conclusions about its properties. The object appears to be in a binary system, likely accreting material from a nearby companion, which may be what’s causing its spin-up behavior.

Dong’s team suggests it may be a neutron star, particularly a pulsar, since pulsars are known to emit rhythmic bursts and can increase their spin rate.

However, Bloot’s team proposes the object is a white dwarf, noting ultraviolet signals matching the profile of a white dwarf with 78% the mass of the Sun and temperatures between 15,000 to 33,000 Kelvin. This would make it a white dwarf pulsar — a theoretically possible but rarely observed object.

More details on neutron stars and white dwarfs

What's Next?

Whether it's a neutron star or a white dwarf, CHIME J1634+44 is rewriting the astrophysics playbook. More observations will be required to pinpoint its true nature, but one thing is certain — the Blinking Unicorn is an astrophysical enigma.

“We have a real mystery on our hands,” one astronomer told ExtremeTech.

With its extreme polarization, dual periodicities, and accelerating spin, this stellar oddity might hold the key to understanding how compact stars behave—and how many more Blinking Unicorns are hiding in the cosmos.

Read more:

• ExtremeTech article on CHIME J1634+44
• MSN Tech coverage
• Learn more about stellar remnants