Scientists and astronomers have made a great discovery that explains a strange space signal that comes from our Galaxy Melkweg. For the past 10 years they have seen radio pulses from the Ursa Major Constellation (where the big dipper is). These signals came every two hours and lasted between 30 and 90 seconds, such as a slow heart rate from space, CNN reported.
Now researchers have discovered that these pulses come from a few stars. One of them is a dead star called a white dwarf. The other is a small, cool red dwarf.
These two stars are very close and turn each other every 125.5 minutes. Because they are so close, their magnetic fields interact, which causes these long radio pulses. This type of event is known as a long-term radio transient (LPT).
Earlier it was thought that such signals only came from neutron stars, which are the remains of solid stars after an explosion. But this finding proves that even white dwarfs can create such signals.
Dr. Iris de Ruiter and her team used data from a network of radio telescopes in Europe called LOFAR to find this. They looked at older recordings and found the signals hiding in sight. They then used telescopes to confirm the discovery.
These radio pulses differ from fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are very short and powerful. LPTs are weaker but last longer. Scientists believe that many such signals may have been missed in the past.
What the scientists say
“At the moment the radio pulses have completely disappeared, but these can set again at a later time,” said CNN as a rider.
Dr. Kaustubh Rajwade is co -author of the study. He is a radio astronomer in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford.
“Every discovery tells us something new about the extreme astrophysical objects that can create the radio emission we see,” he said.
