17 comments

  • dekhn 26 minutes ago

    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.

  • throwaway81523 38 minutes ago

    Pulsars are usually faster than that I guess.

  • cartan 44 minutes ago

    Nuke them before it's too late!

  • metalman an hour ago

    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 J071507โˆ’114153, "the pulse on your dial" brought to by astrophyisal phenominon, every 8 min, for eterinty

  • martijnvds 2 hours ago

    The signal? "Replace smoke alarm battery"

    • bombcar an hour ago

      Then it would be periodic but so long between signals that it would be nearly impossible to determine where it was coming from.

      • gibolt an hour ago

        Maybe it is a musical instrument smoke alarm

      • hilariously 24 minutes ago

        What's that beep? Eh, we'll figure it in the next galactic epoch, go back to bed.

  • ocastx 20 minutes ago

    We are on our way, Carol!

  • vegnus 2 hours ago

    Radio... Live transmission?

    • ceejayoz 2 hours ago
      • rtkwe 36 minutes ago

        Yes but repeated evenly spaced pulses are special and limited to a special subset of stars caller pulsars. The sun is mostly wideband radio noise where the article is talking about distinct regular pulses which are rarer.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar

      • vegnus an hour ago

        Sorry I was making a dumb joke about a song

      • y-curious an hour ago

        You responded to a โ€œjokeโ€ but hey this is cool new info for me

        • ErroneousBosh 39 minutes ago

          If you have satellite TV you already have a solar radiotelescope.

          Measure the voltage on the AGC line in the tuner and you'll see a peak as the sun passes the azimuth of the dish. That's it picking up 10GHz solar radiation, and turning its gain down to compensate for the background noise.

    • AstroNutt an hour ago

      I got it! :) There is no Joy in this HN Division.

  • xqcgrek2 an hour ago