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2w ago

Astronomers Identify White Dwarf Binary as Source of Long‑Period Radio Transient

The discovery provides a multiwavelength template scientists can use to distinguish some of the galaxy’s slow, repeating radio bursts.

The ASKAP radio telescope at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory on Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia. (Credit: Alex Cherney/CSIRO)
First Proof Mysterious Radio Pulses Come From Cataclysmic Variables Represents “Astronomical Rosetta Stone”
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Overview

  • A Nature Astronomy paper published Monday confirmed that ASKAP J1745−5051 is an accreting white dwarf binary that emits repeating radio and X-ray bursts on a roughly 1.3–1.4 hour orbital period.
  • The radio and X-ray peaks are offset in orbital phase, which shows the emissions come from separate regions with radio pulses tied to magnetic interactions and X-rays produced by hot gas falling onto the white dwarf.
  • The identification rests on coordinated observations from ASKAP, ATCA, MeerKAT, SOAR, Magellan, Swift and the Einstein Probe and on optical spectra that show emission lines typical of magnetic cataclysmic variables.
  • The result weakens the idea that very slow pulsars produce these long‑period transients and establishes ASKAP J1745−5051 as a ‘Rosetta stone’ for classifying other LPTs while leaving open how many LPTs share this origin.
  • Teams plan continued multiwavelength follow-up to map the emission physics, test why only some accreting white dwarf systems show LPT behavior, and use the system as a laboratory for extreme magnetic and plasma processes.