“Strange radio waves emerge from direction of the galactic centre”? Yes, it sounds like the opening of a trailer for a sci-fi film. But it is actually a media release from last week from the University of Sydney in Australia:

Astronomers have discovered unusual signals coming from the direction of the Milky Way’s centre. The radio waves fit no currently understood pattern of variable radio source and could suggest a new class of stellar object.

“The strangest property of this new signal is that it is has a very high polarisation. This means its light oscillates in only one direction, but that direction rotates with time,” said Ziteng Wang, lead author of the new study and a PhD student in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney.

“The brightness of the object also varies dramatically, by a factor of 100, and the signal switches on and off apparently at random. We’ve never seen anything like it.”

News, “Strange radio waves emerge from direction of the galactic centre” at University of Sydney (October 12, 2021)

They are sure it is not a pulsar but not of much else. This is how it appears:

It was quite a find for international student Ziteng Wang and his team. Published in in The Astrophysical Journal, the paper illustrates the advances radio astronomy is making in probing what’s out there.

Wang’s PhD supervisor Tara Murphy explained,

“Looking towards the centre of the Galaxy, we found ASKAP J173608.2-321635, named after its coordinates. This object was unique in that it started out invisible, became bright, faded away and then reappeared. This behaviour was extraordinary.”

News, “Strange radio waves emerge from direction of the galactic centre” at University of Sydney (October 12, 2021)

It was also hard to track, though they tried various telescopes. Finally, they caught up with it, and…

“Luckily, the signal returned, but we found that the behaviour of the source was dramatically different – the source disappeared in a single day, even though it had lasted for weeks in our previous ASKAP observations.”

News, “Strange radio waves emerge from direction of the galactic centre” at University of Sydney (October 12, 2021)

Wang comments:

“The strangest property of this new signal is that it is has a very high polarisation. This means its light oscillates in only one direction, but that direction rotates with time,” said Ziteng Wang, lead author of the new study and a PhD student in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney.

University of Sydney, “Strange radio waves emerge from the direction of the galactic center” at ScienceDaily (October 12, 2021)

Could it be a signal of some type from an intelligent source? If so, there should be patterns but not ones governed wholly by natural forces.

No one is discussing that but the astronomers are certain of one thing: We can now find out more:

“Within the next decade, the transcontinental Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope will come online. It will be able to make sensitive maps of the sky every day,” Professor Murphy said. “We expect the power of this telescope will help us solve mysteries such as this latest discovery, but it will also open vast new swathes of the cosmos to exploration in the radio spectrum.”

University of Sydney, “Strange radio waves emerge from the direction of the galactic center” at Phys.org (October 12, 2021)

You may also wish to read: The Pentagon’s UAP (UFO) report signals a sharp attitude change. The brass have committed themselves to going “wherever the data takes us.” No, they didn’t report UFOs. But they reported enough mysteries to stop merely debunking and discrediting… and follow the evidence.

and

Quantum physicist: Aliens may communicate by starlight. Terry Rudolph of Imperial College, London, argues that they may have evolved so as to take advantage of quantum mechanics via photonics more easily than we can. Photonics is a form of communication that takes advantage of the fact that light moves faster than electricity.