Space has been sending us the same signal every 1.4 hours for years — scientists now know why

For years, astronomers were picking up the same powerful burst of radio waves from deep space—repeating every 84 minutes—and had no idea what was causing it. They called these objects long-period radio transients. About a dozen had been discovered, but none had been explained. Now, a team from the University of Sydney has solved one of the mysteries. The signal was coming from two stars locked in a tight orbit—a white dwarf and a red dwarf—whose magnetic fields collide every single orbit, producing the exact burst astronomers had been puzzling over for years. It's the first confirmed source of a signal like this ever identified. Visuals & Credits: ASKAP Telescope Photograph — Alex Cherney / CSIRO NICER Catches Milestone X-ray Burst — Visualization by Chris Smith / NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center T Coronae Borealis Nova Animation — Visualization by Adriana Manrique Gutierrez / NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Study Illustration — University of Sydney / Nature Astronomy