According to an article published in Nature on Wednesday, scientists observed the mysterious object while mapping radio frequencies in deep space in early 2018.

 

They noticed the object was emitting a low-frequency radio signal about every 18 minutes for many months. The bursts of energy would last anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. When visible, the bursts were among the brightest sources of radio waves viewable from Earth, according to a source.

 

Vice reports that the energy pulses were noticed between January and March of 2018 but haven't been observed since.

 

Officials aren't sure what the object was, though they have some theories. Some say that it could be the remnants of a collapsed star or a "white dwarf" — a small, dense star that's almost about the size of a planet.

 

Others are of the view that the object was a "magnetar" — a neuron star with a very powerful magnetic field. However, CNN reports that typical magnetars flare-up over the span of seconds, and an 18-minute interval for flares would be highly unusual.

 

Though the object was thousands of light-years away, scientists were still taken abback by the mystery object's close proximity to Earth.