Scientists could have finally identified mysterious radio bursts from outer space

Scientists have been puzzled for years about the source of mysterious radio bursts, but they may now finally have an answer.

The repeating bursts of radio waves, which were discovered in 2022, have been a source of intrigue ever since they were discovered.

New research, however, has lifted the lid on where in space these signals could be coming from. One of the pulsating signals was tracked back to its source — a red dwarf, a common star in the milky way, which was likely in a binary orbit with a white dwarf - the remaining core of a dying star.

TheLive Science team found “periodic radio pulsations”, that repeated every 18 minutes emanating from space. These pulsations flashed for three months and then vanished. Current theories say pulsars, a type of neutron star, should not produce the type of radio waves that were spotted.

Scientists discover two new celestial objects in our galaxy Potential polar ring galaxy NGC 4632. The picture shows a gaseous ring perpendicularly circulating the main spiral disk of the galaxy. [Credit: Jayanne English (U. Manitoba), Nathan Deg (Queen's U.) & WALLABY Survey, CSIRO / ASKAP, NAOJ / Subaru Telescope]

Despite 50 years of research, the way pulsars emit radiation is still not very well understood. Since 2022, more slowly-blinking radio sources have been discovered. Each one was found deep in the Milky Way, which makes it very hard to pinpoint the kind of star or object that produces the mysterious radio waves.

Scientists scanned the skies using the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope, which is located in Western Australia. It can observe 1,000 square degrees of the sky every minute.

The data was processed to find the signals in “sparsely populated” regions of the Milky Way. A new source was found, named GLEAM-X J0704-37. It produces pulses of radio waves that last a minute once every 2.9 hours. This makes it the “slowest long-period transient found so far”.

Follow-up observations were done using the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, which pinpointed the precise location of the radio waves — they were emanating from a red dwarf star.

Despite making up 70% of the stars in the Milky Way, red dwarfs are so faint they’re not visible to the naked eye.

Further research indicates that the emitter of the waves is not the red dwarf itself, but an unseen object in a binary orbit with it. Scientists believe this second object is a white dwarf.

They say it takes two to tango...

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