this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
59 points (96.8% liked)

World News

802 readers
626 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be a decent person
  2. No spam
  3. Add the byline, or write a line or two in the body about the article.

Other communities of interest:

founded 5 months ago
MODERATORS
Deceptichum@quokk.au
Grainne@lemmy.dbzer0.com
PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
59
Mysterious radio pulses from the Milky Way ‘are unlike anything we knew before’ (edition.cnn.com)
submitted 1 day ago by StraponStratos@lemmy.sdf.org to c/world@quokk.au
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Over the past decade, scientists have detected a puzzling phenomenon: radio pulses coming from within our Milky Way galaxy that would pulse every two hours, like a cosmic heartbeat. The long radio blasts, which lasted between 30 and 90 seconds, appeared to come from the direction of the Ursa Major constellation, where the Big Dipper is located.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 43 points 1 day ago (15 children)

Not aliens 🙁

Now, astronomers have zeroed in on the surprising origin of the unusual radio pulses: a dead star, called a white dwarf, that is closely orbiting a small, cool red dwarf star. Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the cosmos.

The two stars, known collectively as ILTJ1101, are orbiting each other so closely that their magnetic fields interact, emitting what’s known as a long period radio transient, or an LPT. Previously, long radio bursts were only traced to neutron stars, the dense remnants left after a colossal stellar explosion.

[–] secret_agent@lemmy.myserv.one 6 points 1 day ago

Aaaaawww maaaaannnnn.... :((

load more comments (14 replies)