A Dead Star May Be Behind These Mysterious Radio Signals

[Narrator] For years, astronomers have been

trying to pinpoint the origin

of mysterious radio signals flashing

from deep space at regular intervals.

Known as long-period radio transience

or LPTs, these bursts can repeat anywhere

from minutes to hours apart.

Now, researchers at the University of Sydney

believe they've identified the source

of one of them

using Australia's ASKAP radio telescope.

The mysterious object named this

is a binary star system.

The team found that the system is what's known

as a magnetic cataclysmic variable,

a rare type of binary star system

where a white dwarf,

the dense remnant left behind

when a star reaches the end of its life,

uses its powerful magnetic field

to pull material from a nearby companion star.

In this case, the companion is a small red dwarf,

a low-mass star, still in the active phase

of its life with just a 10th of the sun's mass.

The two stars orbit each other

in just over an hour,

almost perfectly matching the timing

of the radio bursts,

suggesting that the radio pulses are linked

to the system's rapid orbit

and the white dwarf's

ongoing accretion of material.

For researchers, this binary star system

could be the Rosetta Stone

for deciphering LPTs helping to determine

whether other LPTs are powered by white dwarfs,

neutron stars, or something else entirely.