A PhD student in Sydney just found a “Rosetta Stone” for years of unexplained radio bursts from the Milky Way: a dead star is stripping material from its companion in a 1.4-hour orbit, giving astronomers their clearest look yet at what produces at least some of these mysterious signals.

ASKAP J1745−5051 links a 1.34497-hour radio pulse to an accreting white dwarf binary, giving astronomers a reference case for long-period radio transients. The post A PhD student in Sydney just found a “Rosetta Stone” for years of unexplained radio bursts from the Milky Way: a dead star is stripping material from its companion in a 1.4-hour orbit, giving astronomers their clearest look yet at what…