Researchers discover rare star system that emits radio signals every 8 minutes

martijnvds

The signal? "Replace smoke alarm battery"

vegnus

Radio... Live transmission?

xqcgrek2

apparently its a class of objects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_period_radio_transient

metalman

I didn't know that there was a whole slew of these red and white dwarfs orbiting other stars, which I think must make it extra unlikely for there to be habitable planets in the same system, the process of one star capturing another is going to realy wreck havock with any original planets, and any surviving lifeform to get past the am radio phase of technological development thats! GPM J071507−114153, "the pulse on your dial" brought to by astrophyisal phenominon, every 8 min, for eterinty

cartan

Nuke them before it's too late!

throwaway81523

Pulsars are usually faster than that I guess.

dekhn

I don't think the title is really accurate- it doesn't emit radio signals every 8 minutes, it emits constantly, but emits along an axis that periodically aligns with our viewing cone.

ocastx

We are on our way, Carol!

rq1

“long-period transients“ What wait, 8mn is a long period? I checked the fastest pulsar observed rotates and “emits” at 716Hz! :shock: That’s ~70.000km/s on the equator given its ~30km diameter :shock: :shock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_J1748%E2%88%922446ad

Kuyawa

Why would you send signals at a fixed interval? That would instantly label you as a natural phenomena instead of organic intent Make it random, at least receivers would have a harder time identifying intentions

teeray

A light shining in the dark forest...

whalesalad

so... a pulsar?

itintheory

Sounds like the OnOff star from A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. It started with very quick oscillation and eventually settled toward 200 years off, 60 years on (or so). Interesting speculation about what this would do to a developing species/society.

1970-01-01

All I got from this is pulsars aren't long period transient stars "because that's why". Seriously, if data doesn't fit the classical definition, you need to update the classical definition.

stronglikedan

If this thing has been sending repeating signals for what I presume to be a very long time, shouldn't we have already detected it? Or is it that we've always been able to detect this particular signal, but have only just now traced it to its source?

xg15

> It’s amazing that by using radio wavelengths we can detect the storms on a star over 5000 light-years away. And I still find it mindboggling that the radio pulses from the star that we're receiving were emitted 5000 years ago.