Rotating Radio Transient

These stellar objects, also referred to as RRATs, are small, compressed neutron stars that exhibit no activity most of the time, but once in a while they emit a single, short burst of radio waves. They are probably related to conventional radio pulsars, emitting isolated radio bursts that last for periods running between 2 milliseconds and 30 milliseconds. In between the bursts, however, for periods ranging from four minutes to three hours, they remain silent.

Because the RRATs maintain radio silence most of the time, their chances of being detected are low. Therefore, many more may be lurking unseen in the Milky Way - perhaps as many as a few hundred thousand. The estimated number of normal radio pulsars in the galaxy is about 100,000.

Unlike other kinds of stars that show periodic eruptions, the RRATs exhibit no evidence of residing in binary systems. A handful of conventional pulsars also produce occasional giant pulses, along with their usual train of regular, smaller pulses, but the RRATs seem to differ from these stellar bodies because their magnetic field strengths in the emission region are about 100,000 times weaker.