Over the past decade, scientists have detected a puzzling phenomenon: radio pulses coming from within our Milky Way galaxy that would pulse every two hours, like a cosmic heartbeat. The long radio blasts, which lasted between 30 and 90 seconds, appeared to come from the direction of the Ursa Major constellation, where the Big Dipper is located.
Not aliens 🙁
Now, astronomers have zeroed in on the surprising origin of the unusual radio pulses: a dead star, called a white dwarf, that is closely orbiting a small, cool red dwarf star. Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the cosmos.
The two stars, known collectively as ILTJ1101, are orbiting each other so closely that their magnetic fields interact, emitting what’s known as a long period radio transient, or an LPT. Previously, long radio bursts were only traced to neutron stars, the dense remnants left after a colossal stellar explosion.
Bummer. Aliens would have been perfect for my 2025 bingo card.
And not the good ones like ET. We talking Predators and Independence Day.
Now if you’re thinking that it would solve all our problems cause humanity would unite against the common threat, I think you’d get a disappointing, pessimistic but pretty realistic wake up call.
I think most people are past the phase of uniting against a common threat and more in the “can someone just stop us, already? Because we are a shitshow” phase
