Professor Patrick Sutton News Today

The explosion would have to take place within 36-light years of our planet for the gamma rays from the kilonova to reach us, according to scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

A team of astronomers led by Australias Curtin University arent 100 per cent sure what the object is, but think it could be an ultra-long period magnetar - an extremely rare type of star.

The unusual star grouping, known as CPD-29 2176, is located about 11,400 light-years from Earth and was first identified by the US space agencys Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, launched to space in 2004.

Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say the new stellar system is unique because it appears to host a third, far-flung star which orbits around the two inner stars every 10,000 years.

Kilonovas are immense explosions caused by neutron stars colliding into each other, sending an intense jet of of high-energy particles through space, experts in Evanston, Illinois explain.

By expelling energy and matter into space, neutron stars contribute to the formation of new generations of stars, according to a study led by the University of Southampton.

The mysterious object was found by astronomers from Curtin University in Australia while they were mapping radio waves in the universe using the Murchison Widefield Array telescope in the outback.

During the eruption, the magnetar released the energy equivalent to that produced by the Sun in 100,000 years, according to researchers led by the University of Valencia.

The outburst was picked up by telescopes as a blue flash from the spiral arm of a galaxy, 200 million light years away from Earth, according to researchers from Massachusets Institute of Technology.