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Space

Powerful radio pulses puzzle astronomers

2 March 2005

A MYSTERY object near the centre of our galaxy is sending out powerful pulses of radio waves. It is unlike any known source.

A team of astronomers led by Scott Hyman of Sweet Briar College, Virginia, detected the mysterious source using the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico. The pulses are coming from a spot just to one side of the galactic centre. Each pulse lasts about 10 minutes, and they repeat regularly every 77 minutes. If, as the researchers think, the source is near the centre of the Milky Way, it would be one of the most…

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