COSMIC INDIGESTION: Scientists Find Cosmic ‘Rosetta Stone’ To Decode Baffling Signals From Deep Space.

Just a few years ago, a strange signal was received from the plane of the Milky Way.

It was something astronomers had never seen before, pulsing with a radio beat too slow to fit any known astronomical object.

It may have just come and gone as a one-off anomaly.

But then they found another one.

And another.

To date, around a dozen of these long-period radio transients (LPTs) have been detected from diverse corners of the galaxy, leaving scientists baffled.

Now, a team led by astronomer Kovi Rose of the University of Sydney in Australia thinks they may finally have found their Rosetta Stone, the object that could help them interpret at least some of these weird, pulsating objects.

In the direction of the galaxy’s inner regions, the researchers traced an LPT signal directly to a magnetic cataclysmic variable star – a strongly magnetized white dwarf cannibalizing its companion and belching periodic radiation.

Rude.