Far across the Milky Way, more than 5,000 light-years away, a faint radio heartbeat has been pulling itself out of the noise every eight minutes. It comes from a strange partnership: the dead, spinning core of a once-active star, bound to a living companion much like our own sun. Astronomers have long heard pulses like this from systems built around small, cool red dwarfs, so finding one beside a sun-like star reshapes what the sky was thought to allow. The discovery also hints at something quieter and more intimate, a way to read the storms that sweep across distant stars through the radio wh
Rare Star Pair Emits Radio Pulses Every Eight Minutes, Astronomers Report
Storms on a star over 5,000 light-years away, detected by radio
Mark
So what actually was found here? A signal, or a star system?
Mimi
Both. A radio signal pulsing every eight minutes was traced to a white dwarf and a sun-like G-type star, more than 5,000 light-years away.
Mark
Why does the sun-like star matter?
Mimi
Systems like this usually involve red dwarfs, the smallest and coolest stars. This is the first with a star like our sun.
Luke
Does the report say the white dwarf is the source of the pulses?
Mimi
Not definitively. McSweeney said they come from a region close to the white dwarf, or possibly from the white dwarf itself.
Luke
So the location is narrowed down, but not the mechanism.
Mimi
Right. The report doesn't explain the mechanism at all.
Mark
What made this detection different from the earlier ones?
Mimi
The pulses were clear enough to see the white dwarf moving in its orbit. That took more than 100 hours of data run through the Pawsey supercomputer.
Mark
And the flares?
Mimi
The pulses let the team detect flares on the sun-like star, similar to the ones that cause auroras on Earth.
Luke
Worth noting that the account comes from the research team's own statement. There's no independent comment in the piece, and nothing on how many such systems might exist beyond the dozen found since 2021.
O Pulso
- A radio signal switches on and off with metronomic regularity, every eight minutes, from a system more than 5,000 light-years away.
- The pulses had only ever been seen beside red dwarfs, so finding them next to a sun-like star has unsettled assumptions about where such signals can arise.
- Teams from Australia and beyond chased the source across three instruments, from the Murchison Widefield Array to MeerKAT in South Africa and Keck in Hawai'i.
- Over 100 hours of data were crunched in Western Australia to show the white dwarf actually moving in its orbit, narrowing the pulses to its vicinity.
- Stellar flares on the companion star surfaced along the way, and the open question now is whether more sun-like pairings will emerge from the surveys.
Far across the Milky Way, more than 5,000 light-years away, a faint radio heartbeat has been pulling itself out of the noise every eight minutes. It comes from a strange partnership: the dead, spinning core of a once-active star, bound to a living companion much like our own sun. Astronomers have long heard pulses like this from systems built around small, cool red dwarfs, so finding one beside a sun-like star reshapes what the sky was thought to allow. The discovery also hints at something quieter and more intimate, a way to read the storms that sweep across distant stars through the radio whispers they leave behind.
A radio signal that switches on roughly every eight minutes has been traced to a pair of stars more than 5,000 light-years from Earth. Astronomers at Curtin University and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research announced the finding on Friday.
The system holds two very different stars. One is a white dwarf, the dead core of a once-active star, spinning once every eight minutes. Its companion is a G-type star, similar to our sun. The researchers call it GPM J071507−114153.
What makes it remarkable is the pairing. Pulsing signals like this have mostly been found around red dwarfs, the smallest and coolest stars known. This is the first time they have been detected beside a sun-like star.
The signal was clear enough to show the white dwarf moving in its orbit, which suggests the pulses come from near the white dwarf itself. Dr. Sam McSweeney and his colleagues processed more than 100 hours of data at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre to confirm it.
The discovery began with the Murchison Widefield Array in Western Australia, then moved to MeerKAT in South Africa for precise positioning, and finally to the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawai'i to confirm the companion's identity.
The pulses also revealed flares on the sun-like star, similar to those that create auroras on Earth. Natasha Hurley-Walker said it was amazing that radio waves could expose storms on a star so far away. The open questions remain where exactly the pulses originate and whether more sun-like pairings will turn up.
A radio signal that switches on roughly every eight minutes has been traced to a pair of stars more than 5,000 light-years from Earth. Astronomers at Australia's Curtin University and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research announced the finding on Friday.
The system holds two very different stars. One is a white dwarf, the dead core of a star that was once active, and it spins once every eight minutes. Its companion is a G-type star, often called a yellow dwarf, similar to our sun. The researchers call the system GPM J071507−114153.
What sets it apart is the pairing. Pulsing signals of this kind have typically been found in systems with red dwarfs, the smallest and coolest stars known. This is the first time such pulses have been detected alongside a sun-like star. Around a dozen comparable systems have turned up since the first was found in 2021. In earlier cases, researchers could see radio signals flicking on and off but could not tell which star in the pair was producing them.
This time the signal was clear enough to settle part of that question. Dr. Sam McSweeney, who made the discovery, said it is the first instance where the pulses are sharp enough to show the white dwarf moving in its orbit around its companion. From that, the team concluded the pulsations come from a region close to the white dwarf, or possibly from the white dwarf itself. To confirm the motion, McSweeney and his colleagues processed more than 100 hours of data at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Western Australia.
The discovery drew on several instruments across the globe. The system was first detected when the Murchison Widefield Array telescope in Western Australia scanned the Milky Way. Natasha Hurley-Walker, an associate professor at Curtin, said the team then turned to the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa to pin down its precise position. Finally, the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawai'i was used to confirm that the companion is a G-type star.
The pulses also carried an unexpected bonus. They allowed the scientists to detect stellar flares on the sun-like star, similar to the flares that produce auroras on Earth. Hurley-Walker said it was amazing that radio wavelengths can reveal storms on a star more than 5,000 light-years away.
That gives astronomers a possible new way to study the weather of distant stars. The open question is where exactly the pulses originate, and whether more sun-like pairings will turn up in the radio surveys that found this one.
Citações Notáveis
This is the first time the pulses are clear enough to see the white dwarf moving in its orbit, so the pulsations come from a region close to the white dwarf, or possibly from the white dwarf itself.— Dr. Sam McSweeney, Curtin University
It's amazing that by using radio wavelengths we can detect storms on a star over 5,000 light-years away.— Natasha Hurley-Walker, associate professor, Curtin University
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