An unusual star system that emits mysterious radio signals every eight minutes has been discovered in deep space. Astronomers in Australia have linked regular radio pulses to an unusual pair of celestial bodies 5,000 light years from Earth. One is a dead star that rotates every eight minutes and the other is a star similar to our own sun. They explained that the newly discovered system, known as GPM J071507−114153, consists of two stars orbiting each other: a white dwarf (the dense core left behind when a star dies) and a G-type star similar to the Sun. It is the first time that radio pulses have been detected from a white dwarf orbiting a star similar to the Sun, according to a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Astronomers in Australia have discovered a strange system in deep space that sends mysterious radio signals every 8 minutes. ICRAR/SWNS Researchers at the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth, Western Australia, explained that these pulses are usually observed in systems with smaller, cooler red dwarf stars, meaning the discovery breaks new ground. Lead author of the study, Dr Sam McSweeney, said: “This is the first time that the pulses are clear enough to see the white dwarf moving in its orbit around its companion, so we know that the pulses are coming from a region close to the white dwarf, or possibly even from the white dwarf itself.” Dr McSweeney, who made the discovery while working as a researcher at ICRAR, says these types of star pairs belong to a broader class of objects known as long-period transients (LPTs), which produce radio signals that turn on and off at intervals ranging from minutes to hours. About a dozen have been detected since the same ICRAR team discovered the first one in 2021, and astronomers are still working to understand them. Located 5,000 light-years away, GPM J071507-114153 combines a dense white dwarf with a Sun-like star. ICRAR/SWNS While several previously discovered LPT systems contain a white dwarf and another star, it is unclear which of the two stars was generating the radio pulses. The research team processed more than 100 hours of radio data at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Center to validate and understand the motion of the white dwarf. Study co-author Associate Professor Natasha Hurley-Walker says the pulses emitted by the white dwarf allowed the team to detect stellar flares in the Sun-like star, similar to those that create auroras on Earth. She said: “As a bonus, we also saw the white dwarf moving behind a region with a strong magnetic field, most likely a ‘stellar prominence’, which is a large loop of plasma erupting from the surface of a star. “It’s amazing that using radio wavelengths we can detect storms in a star more than 5,000 light-years away.” A diagram shows the star system GPM J071507−114153, an unusual pairing of a white dwarf and a Sun-like star that emits regular radio pulses every eight minutes. McSweeney et al 2026 / SWNS ICRAR researchers have been at the forefront of discovering rare systems. Professor Hurley-Walker said: “We detected this system in a large study using the Murchison Widefield Array to scan the entire Milky Way visible from Australia. “We then used the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa to determine its exact position.” After the LPT was located using radio telescopes, the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii confirmed its association with a G-type star through optical observations. Dr. McSweeney added: “If we are already making such discoveries with precursor telescopes, imagine how many more star systems we will be able to find and what a beautifully detailed view of their signals we will have once the SKAO telescopes are fully built.”
