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Wang et al. have reported the discovery with ASKAP of a
highly-polarized, highly-variable, steep-spectrum radio source The
source, ASKAP J173608.2−321635, is located toward the centre of our
Galaxy and was detected six times in 2020 as part of the ASKAP
Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) survey. It exhibited an
unusually high degree (∼25%) of circular polarization when it was
visible. Follow-up observations with the MeerKAT telescope in South
Africa revealed strong time-variability, being undetectable at first,
then brightening, before fading rapidly with a timescale of one day.
Various origins were considered, but none of these fully explains the
observations, which suggests that this source may represent part of a
new class of objects being discovered through radio imaging surveys.
This work is described
in an article in The Conversation, and the paper was published
in the Astrophysical Journal this week.
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