Scientists amazed by blinking star's 'totally unexpected' behavior

An artist's impression of an object located roughly 4,200 light years from our solar system that may be a type of neutron star - the dense, collapsed core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova - called a magnetar, in this handout image obtained January 27, 2022. The object was detected using the Murchison Widefield Array telescope in Australia. Courtesty of International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research/Handout via REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have detected what appears to be an incredibly dense star behaving unlike anything else ever seen - and suspect it might be a type of exotic astrophysical object whose existence has until now been only hypothesized.

The object, spotted using the Murchison Widefield Array telescope in outback Western Australia, unleashed huge bursts of energy roughly three times per hour when viewed from Earth during two months in 2018, the researchers said.