Scientists discover the source of mysterious radio signals from space

Peculiar radio signals from space that baffled scientists have now been traced to an unexpected source.

Earth has been receiving regular pulses every 125 minutes, or roughly every two hours.

You’re probably wondering if aliens have been trying to contact us here on Earth, but unfortunately, we’ll have to wait longer to hear from any extra terrestrials (if they exist).

The actual source of these signals is still very intriguing. Researchers have determined they originate from a mind-blowing cosmic partnership of sorts.

A white dwarf and a red dwarf star around 1,645 light-years away orbit each other so closely that their magnetic fields interact, generating radio pulses that travel across space and eventually reach our planet. This incredible system is known as ILTJ1101 and they’re often studied in astrophysics because they can reveal fascinating details about the behaviour of stars and their magnetic environments.

An artist's depiction of red and white dwarfswww.flickr.com

A team of astronomers led by Dr Iris de Ruiter of the University of Sydney has identified the source of the signal. She discovered the pulses in 2024 whilst examining archival data from the Netherlands.

She was examining information from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), the largest radio telescope operating at the lowest observable frequencies from Earth.

Dr de Ruiter initially found a single pulse that had arrived here on Earth in 2015 but a deeper investigation of the same area of the sky revealed six more pulses which remarkably lasted a few seconds to a minute at regular intervals.

This pattern of slow and regular pulses are very rare. At first, only the red dwarf was visible. It was determined that it was moving quickly moving back and forth very rapidly with the same two-hour period as the radio pulses, and it was this motion that revealed the presence of the white dwarf.

You should also read…

• A white dwarf star is currently transforming into a giant ‘cosmic diamond’
• Scientists discover strange planet that’s ‘melting from within’

Sign up for our free indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings