Scientists investigating mysterious radio signals coming from outer space have finally uncovered where they might be coming from.
For the past decade, these signals have been transmitting radio emissions to Earth for about two hours each day, seemingly coming from the Big Dipper constellation.
Using multiple telescopes to try and locate their origin, scientists now believe they may be coming from a pair of dead stars.
Scientists say the red dwarf and white dwarf are orbiting each other so closely that their magnetic fields are constantly interacting. In essence, when they bump into each other every two hours, they give off radio signals.
Astronomers had previously linked such long radio pulses only to neutron stars. However, a new study suggests for the first time that they can also originate from the movement of stars bound together in a binary system.
These pulses are short flashes of radio signals that are fleeting and can last between seconds to a few minutes.
Northwestern astrophysicist Charles Kilpatrick said in a statement: “There are several highly magnetized neutron stars, or magnetars, that are known to exhibit radio pulses with a period of a few seconds.
“Some astrophysicists also have argued that sources might emit pulses at regular time intervals because they are spinning, so we only see the radio emission when source is rotated toward us. Now, we know at least some long-period radio transients come from binaries.”
He added: “The radio pulses are very similar to FRBs, but they each have different lengths.
“The pulses have much lower energies than FRBs and usually last for several seconds, as opposed to FRBs which last milliseconds. There’s still a major question of whether there’s a continuum of objects between long-period radio transients and FRBs, or if they are distinct populations.”
