Mysterious radio signals discovered in ‘unprecedented’ part of space

Published

11 months ago

March 12, 2025

READ MORE: Scientists uncover the ‘strongest evidence yet’ for aliens

Over the last 10 years, Earth has been receiving a mysterious radio signal every two hours from a distant region of space.

Although it sounds like the start of a sci-fi novel, scientists have now traced these pulses back to an ‘unprecedented’ source.

The researchers say that the pulses originate from a binary system containing a long-dead star.

In this system, a white dwarf and red dwarf orbit each other so closely that their magnetic fields ‘bump together’ to create a long radio pulse.

Since the stars’ orbit is regular, they produce a pulse every 125 minutes like a vast cosmic clock.

Researchers say this system, named ILTJ1101, is located 1,600 light-years from Earth in the direction of the Big Dipper, within the constellation Ursa Major.

This is the first time that a repeating long radio pulse has been observed coming from anything other than a highly magnetised neutron star, known as a magnetar.

In the future, the researchers believe that more mysterious signals from space might turn out to be binary systems like this one.

Researchers have traced the origins of a mysterious radio signal to an ‘unprecedented’ part of space. Their study claims that the burst has been produced by a binary system containing a red dwarf and white dwarf star (illustrated)

Dr Iris de Ruiter, now of the University of Sydney, first discovered the mysterious pulses in 2024 while looking through an archive of data from a radio telescope in the Netherlands.

Within the data of the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), the largest radio telescope operating at the lowest frequencies that can be observed from Earth, Dr de Ruiter discovered a pulse arriving at Earth in 2015.

Sifting through the archival data for the same area of the sky, she soon found six more pulses.

What was unusual was that each pulse, like a flash of light from a torch but in radio form, lasted between a few seconds to a minute and arrived at regular intervals.

As radio-astronomy techniques have improved, scientists are spotting more and more ‘fast radio bursts’ (FRBs) but this kind of slow, regular pulse remain rare.

Study co-author Dr Charles Kilpatrick, of Northwestern University, says: ‘The radio pulses are very similar to FRBs, but they each have different lengths.

‘The pulses have much lower energies than FRBs and usually last for several seconds, as opposed to FRBs which last milliseconds.‘

To learn more about where these pulses were coming from, the researchers accessed a large optical telescope, which would gather light from that region of space.

While regular radio pulses have been theorised to be signs of intelligent life, the researchers say this pulse is produced by the magnetic fields of the two stars bumping together as they orbit (stock image)

Starting a decade ago, scientists detected a regular radio pulse arriving once every 125 minutes from a distant region of space. Until now, the origin of this pulse has been a mystery. This diagram shows how the orbital period of the binary system (blue) matches the radio pulses

At first, only one star was visible, but the data soon revealed more about this strange system.

By looking at the optical spectra of the star – the different frequencies of light that reach the telescope – the researchers learned that the one visible star was a red dwarf.

Red dwarfs are small, cool stars just a fraction the size of the sun, which can burn for trillions of years without using up all their fuel.

However, this particular red dwarf was doing something unusual: it was wobbling back around a central point on a regular schedule.

Dr Kilpatrick says: ‘The spectroscopic lines in these data allowed us to determine that the red dwarf is moving back and forth very rapidly with exactly the same two-hour period as the radio pulses.’

This back-and-forth movement suggests that the red dwarf was being pulled by the gravity of a second, hidden star.

By observing those movements carefully, Dr Kilpatrick calculated that this second star had the same mass as a typical ‘white dwarf’ star.

White dwarfs are dead stars which have burned through all their nuclear fuel and shed their outer layers, leaving behind nothing but their hot, dense core.

The system includes a white dwarf, a dead star so small and faint that they don’t usually show up on optical telescopes. The researchers were only able to determine the white dwarf existed because of its pull on its partner star. Pictured: Artist’s impression of a white dwarf next to our moon for scale

But, since these stars are so dim, they don’t show up on any but the most powerful telescopes – which explains why the researchers couldn’t directly observe it.

The researchers believe that, as the white and red dwarfs dance around a central point, their magnetic fields come close enough to interact and produce a blast of radio waves.

Around 1,600 years later, those radio waves arrive on Earth as the mysterious radio pulses which showed up in Dr de Ruiter’s database.

Dr Kilpatrick says: ‘In almost every scenario, its mass and the fact that it is too faint to see means it must be a white dwarf.

‘This confirms the leading hypothesis for the white dwarf binary origin and is the first direct evidence we have for the progenitor systems of long-period radio transients.’

Going forward, the researchers hope that their study will inspire other astronomers to consider binary systems as the possible source of unusual radio pulses.

This could help us understand many of the mysterious energy sources which have been found throughout the Milky Way.

Lead author Dr de Ruiter says: ‘With different techniques and observations, we got a little closer to the solution step by step.’

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Police bust syndicate behind nude photo blackmail in Lagos

Published

8 hours ago

February 6, 2026

Ekwutos Blog

Men of the Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU), Lagos, have apprehended three suspects who allegedly run a cyber blackmail and extortion scheme in the state.

According to the spokesperson of the unit, DSP Ovie Ewhubare, the suspects get a hold of their victims explicit photos and then threaten to release them if a ransom is not paid.

He said that the suspects, two males and a female, were apprehended after a petition was filed by a complainant who reported being repeatedly threatened by unknown individuals demanding money.

“The complainant received several phone calls in which the callers threatened to release her nude photographs to the public if she failed to pay them. Acting out of fear and emotional distress, she transferred money to the suspects.

The situation escalated when the suspects demanded an additional N10 million, prompting her to formally petition the police,” he said

The police imagemaker state dthat upon receipt of the complaint, the Commissioner of Police, PSFU, Mr Kayode Ojapinwa, ordered the immediate deployment of operatives to investigate the matter.

“The investigation led to the arrest of the three suspects. Investigations revealed that one of the suspects gained unlawful access to the complainant’s mobile device and fraudulently transferred her nude photographs to his own device. Further findings indicated that he conspired with the other suspects and other accomplices currently at large to demand and receive money from the complainant in several tranches,” he said

According to him, the suspects are currently in police custody and are expected to be arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction.

The image maker said that investigations were ongoing to apprehend other fleeing members of the syndicate and to recover all proceeds of the alleged crime.

Catholic Priest Collapses And D!es In Front Of Congregation While Walking To Tabernacle To Return Holy Communion

Published

12 hours ago

February 6, 2026

Ekwutos Blog

A Catholic priest has tragically passed away after suddenly collapsing in front of the congregation during Sunday mass.

The tragic incident took place last Sunday, February 1 in Wiesmath in the district of Wiener Neustadt, Austria.

Shortly after administering Holy Communion, 59-year-old priest Raimund Beisteiner was about to return the host to the tabernacle when he “suddenly” collapsed, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Vienna.

“Despite immediate professional assistance, he di£d in the church,” the statement said.

The mayor of Wiesmath, Erich Rasner, had also attended the Mass with many other believers and witnessed the dramatic scenes.

The shock in Wiesmath at the loss of the popular priest is great. Beisteiner had shaped the spiritual life of the parish for almost two decades and was highly regarded far beyond the community.

Rasner praised him as an “extremely conscientious, sensitive priest” and also emphasized the personal loss of a friendship that had grown over many years.

A prayer service was organized at short notice for the late priest. It was attended by numerous priests from the deanery as well as Archbishop Josef Grünwidl.

Nollywood Actress, Angela Okorie Allegedly Re-Arrested Over Alleged Refusal To Pay Lawyer Who Secured Her Bail (Video)

Published

3 days ago

February 4, 2026

Ekwutos Blog

Angela Okorie, the Nigerian actress, has reportedly been re-arrested over allegations that she refused to pay the lawyer who secured her bail from Suleja Prison.

Angela was re-arrested at the Suleja prison on Tuesday, immediately she was released on bail.

This came less than an hour after actor Stanley Ontop raised the alarm over an alleged plan to re-arrest the actress after release on Tuesday.

Speaking in a video on Instagram, actress Doris Ogala who said she is already on her way to the police station, stated that the actress was re-arrested by an unnamed Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, for refusing to pay the N5 million agreed fee to secure her bail.

Doris said; “You see, one thing is for someone to cut their clothes according to their size. Angela has been arrested again. As a matter of fact, I’m going to the police station now. You see, when Angela was arrested by Mercy, she called a friend of her or village person. I don’t know how they relate. To help her get a SAN.

“And the SAN charged them N5 million. I think the SAN was the one who even facilitated the bail and all that. Now when Angela knew that they have granted her bail according to the lady, Angela started saying that she didn’t ask her to get a SAN and she wasn’t going to pay the money, and meanwhile this lady has deposited.”

Recall that Angela, who was granted bail on Friday after her arrest by Mercy Johnson over alleged defamation, regained her freedom few minutes ago after perfecting her bail conditions.

Watch Doris Ogala speak