Dr. Manisha Caleb.
Research director Dr Manisha Caleb, formerly at the University of Manchester and now at the University of Sydney, said: “Surprisingly, we only detect radio emissions from this source for 0.5 per cent of its rotation.
“It simply came to our notice then.
“So there are likely to be many more of these stars spinning very slowly in the galaxy, which has important implications for understanding how neutron stars are born and age.
“Most pulsar surveys don’t look for such long periods, so we have no idea how many of these stars might exist.”
The newly discovered neutron star is called PSR J0901-4046 and appears to have at least seven different pulse types, some of which occur at regular intervals. It shows the characteristics of pulsars, magnets of very long periods, and even rapid bursts of radio: brief flashes of radio emission at random places in the sky.
“This is the beginning of a new class of neutron stars. It has not yet been explored how or if it relates to other classes. There are probably many more. Just look!” said Dr. Caleb.
Research partners include the 77-person ThunderKAT team, co-led by the Universities of Cape Town and Oxford.