Research3 sources

A rare star system emits radio signals every 8 minutes

The Brief · written from 3 sources

Researchers linked long-period radio transient pulses to a white dwarf orbiting a Sun-like star.
The pulses arrive roughly every eight minutes, per the sources.
The system is described as the first known of its kind, located about 5,000 light-years away.

Why it matters

The discovery identifies a new class of radio transient and points to binary interactions and magnetic activity as possible drivers, which bears on how such sources are classified and studied.

Who’s affected

astronomers studying radio transients and compact objects
researchers in stellar binary evolution

#radio transient
#white dwarf
#binary stars
#long-period radio transient
#stellar magnetism

Scientists at the Curtin University node at the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have linked mysterious radio pulses to an unusual pairing of stars—a dead star that spins every eight minutes and a star similar to our own sun.

Read the full story at phys.org ↗