Scientists have discovered a cosmic "Rosetta Stone" that could help decipher mysterious 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: a pulsation with a radio rhythm too slow to correspond to any known astronomical object.

Perhaps this was just an isolated incident or an anomaly.

But then they found another one.

And one more.

To date, about a dozen such long-period radio transients (LPRTs) have been discovered in different parts of the galaxy, which has left scientists baffled.

Now, a team of researchers led by astronomer Covey Rose of the University of Sydney in Australia believes they may have finally found their Rosetta Stone – an object that could help them interpret at least some of these strange pulsating objects.

Towards the galaxy's interior, the researchers traced the LPT signal directly to a magnetic cataclysmic variable star—a highly magnetized white dwarf that is consuming its companion and periodically emitting radiation.

An artist's impression of a double magnetic cataclysmic variable system. (Carl Knox/OzGrav/Swinburne and Dr. Joshua Preson Pritchard/CSIRO)

«"Long-lived radio transients have puzzled astronomers for years," Rose says.

«"We've only discovered about a dozen such objects, and their origin remained unclear. Now, we've shown that the source of one of these transient phenomena is a white dwarf actively absorbing matter from its companion star.".

The LPT mystery, first detailed in a 2022 paper, has resurfaced after astronomers discovered something pulsating strangely in the plane of the Milky Way.

Every 18.18 minutes, the object GLEAM-X J162759.5−523504.3 brightened for 30–60 seconds, temporarily making it one of the brightest objects in the low-frequency radio band of the sky.

Then it stopped.

But soon astronomers discovered several more objects, proving that whatever this strange object was, it was not just an isolated incident.

As the population grew, astronomers began to piece together possible explanations.

Some observations indicated highly magnetized white dwarfs, while others hinted that at least some LPT crises might occur in binary systems where a white dwarf interacts with a companion star.

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A major breakthrough came in 2025, when one of the LPT signals, dubbed ILT J1101+5521, was traced to a binary star consisting of a red and white dwarf orbiting so close to each other that their magnetic fields repeatedly collided, emitting periodic bursts of radio waves.

The situation was further complicated when astronomers discovered that one of the large radio telescopes, ASKAP J1832-0911, also emits X-rays, indicating energetic processes beyond radio emission alone.

But no single object seemed to be able to tie all the evidence together.

This is what makes this new discovery so intriguing. Its name is ASKAP J1745-5051, and it is the first object that fits together many of the puzzle pieces previously observed in other large celestial bodies.

This includes both radio and X-ray emission, a white dwarf and a binary companion, strong magnetic activity, orbital motion, and accretion—the gravitational transfer of matter onto the white dwarf.

«"Some similar objects have been associated with binary systems before, but this is the first time we can clearly see both the stars and the accretion process in action," says astrophysicist Tara Murphy of the University of Sydney and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational-Wave Detection (OzGrav).

The discovery was made using CSIRO's ASKAP radio telescope, located in the Wajarri-Yamaji region of Western Australia – one of the most sensitive sites in the world.

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