Four mysterious objects like 'ring-shaped islands' detected lurking in deep space

A team of researchers stumbled upon four mysterious objects lurking in the deep space of our universe. These celestial objects are unlike anything ever seen before.

According to Live Science, these objects were discovered using radio wavelengths. Though these objects are faint, they appear to have bright circular edges. So far, the scientists have failed to classify these objects into any known class of astronomical objects.

Described as "distant ring-shaped islands," they have been reportedly dubbed as "radio circles, or ORCs" (Odd Radio Circles) for their unique characteristics. An international team of astronomers led by astrophysicist Ray Norris of Western Sydney University in Australia posted the details of their findings in a paper titled: "Unexpected Circular Radio Objects at High Galactic Latitude." Published on arXiv, the paper awaits peer review.

"[The objects] may well point to a new phenomenon that we haven't really probed yet," said Kristine Spekkens, an astronomer at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University, who was not involved with the new study. "It may also be that these are an extension of a previously known class of objects that we haven't been able to explore."

As per the report, all the four ORCs appear bright at radio wavelengths but remain faint or invisible in visible infrared X-ray light. Meanwhile, two out of four cosmoses have galaxies at their centre that are observable only at visible wavelengths and are located closely. Therefore, it is believed to have originated in those galaxies.

The astronomers used radio telescope array uses 36 dish antennas to spot three of these objects, while the fourth was located in archival data collected by the Giant MetreWave Radio Telescope in India. The objects were spotted by astronomers as a part of the pilot survey of Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU), a project using ASKAP telescope to make a census of radio sources in the sky. The team of EMU consists of 300 astronomers from 21 countries and are expected to unveil 70 million radio sources.

More details about these objects are expected to unravel as the EMU project progresses and discovers more such unusual objects.

"It is also possible that the ORCs represent a new category of a known phenomenon, such as the jets of a radio galaxy or blazar when seen end-on, down the "barrel" of the jet. Alternatively, they may represent some remnant of a previous outflow from a radio galaxy," the authors wrote in the research paper as quoted by Room Space Journal of Asgardia.

The astronomers conclude that further investigation is needed to understand the nature of these objects.