Mysterious Radio Pulses From Space Have Been Tracked Down — and the Source Is Not What Astronomers Expected

In the past three years, astronomers have discovered a mysterious new type of radio source. We call these radio pulses long-period transients.

These objects emit bright radio pulses that repeat every few minutes to every few hours. We have found about a dozen examples, but we still don’t understand which type of star could emit radio pulses in this peculiar way.

In new research published in Nature Astronomy today, we have discovered a new long-period transient. Furthermore, we identified the stars responsible for the mysterious radio flashes — a breakthrough never achieved before.

Spoiler alert: They’re not the typical “cosmic lighthouses” you might expect.

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