Researchers spotted something strange in space and can’t explain it

Researchers have spotted a new class of radio objects in space that has never been documented before.

Known as ‘Odd Radio Circles’ or ORC, it’s believed they may be coming from a mysterious structure from another galaxy, unseen by human eyes.

The waves take the form of blasts of colourful circular objects, which were pinpointed by cameras during a survey by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope (ASKA).

Despite searching for an optical, infrared, or X-ray source to the pulses, none could be traced, leaving experts baffled.

Researchers have concluded it is a never before recorded phenomenon, a review in Nature Astronomy reports.

The results of the extraordinary study are still to be peer-reviewed but offer a tantalising glimpse of a deep space mystery that could one day yield answers about the mysteries of the universe.

Researchers zoomed in on the objects during a survey of the universe using the ASKA.

After three snaps of the mysterious ORCS were captured they were compared to the existing archive and found to match a similar radio wave structure located in March 2013.

The authors of the study note radio images are normally sphere space objects – like remnants of dying stars as well as proto-planetary discs

These new ORCs by contrast “appear to be a new class of astronomical objects” they said.

A team of Astrophysicists write: ” We have found an unexpected class of astronomical objects which have not previously been reported, in the Evolutionary Map of the Universe Pilot survey, using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope.

“The objects appear in radio images as circular edge-brightened discs about one arcmin diameter, and do not seem to correspond to any known type of object.

“We speculate that they may represent a spherical shock wave from an extra-galactic transient event, or the outflow, or a remnant, from a radio galaxy viewed end-on.

“Assumed to be not in any way connected with a supernova remnant—the structure left over after a massive star burst, it was deemed as a possible result of a spherical shock wave arising from galactic winds.

“While this is a theoretical possibility, such a shock has not yet been observed elsewhere.”

They added it is possible the strange discs represent a new category of a previously unknown phenomenon, “such as the jets of a radio galaxy”.

It is not the first time weird radio signals are speculated to be coming from another galaxy. In February Fast radio bursts were documented at the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) in British Columbia.