A team of Russian astronomers from the Pushchina Radio Astronomy Observatory (PRAO) near Moscow has consolidated the outcomes of the Pushchino Multibeam Pulsar Search (PUMPS) research project. The researchers report the discovery of 39 new pulsars, and the findings appear in the scientific periodical Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).
Pulsars are magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation across a range of wavelengths, from radio waves to optical light and high-energy X-rays or gamma rays. As these beams sweep past Earth, they can appear as highly regular pulses, which is why pulsars are often described as cosmic lighthouses.
Details about the project indicate that PUMPS spanned roughly 8.2 years of study, equivalent to about 3000 days of observation. The campaign utilized a substantial phased array radio telescope operating at a frequency of 111 megahertz to capture the signals from distant stellar remnants.
Daily observation sessions lasted about 3.5 minutes for each direction surveyed in the celestial sphere. Researchers collected power spectra to enhance sensitivity and improve the likelihood of detecting faint pulsars in the data.
Some of the newly identified sources may belong to a class known as rotating radio transients, or RRATs. These objects emit sporadic radio bursts that resemble pulsar pulses but occur irregularly. The prevailing interpretation suggests that RRAT emissions arise from neutron stars with intense magnetic fields, though the exact mechanisms driving their irregular pulse frequencies remain a topic of investigation.
In related discoveries, astrophysicists have identified a peculiar, extraordinarily dense object that does not conform to the traditional categories of either black holes or neutron stars, inviting fresh consideration of exotic states of matter and compact object physics.