{"id":31880,"date":"2026-07-07T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/?p=31880"},"modified":"2026-07-06T19:49:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:49:27","slug":"uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus-2026\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"UWM astronomer helps decipher a \u201cRosetta Stone\u201d in space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few years ago, scientists discovered an unusual astronomical phenomenon: Objects that sent short bursts of radio waves at distinct intervals, emanating from various parts of space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scientists named them \u201clong-period radio transients.\u201d They didn\u2019t know much about them, but they knew what the objects were <em>not<\/em>. They were not quasars. They were not pulsars. They <em>were<\/em> a mystery, but thanks to UWM Physics &amp; Astrophysics Professor David Kaplan and an international cohort of astronomers, the world is finally getting a glimpse of what is producing these puzzling energy bursts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kaplan is one of the authors of a new paper published in the prestigious journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-026-02882-x\"><em>Nature Astronomy<\/em><\/a> in June. In it, he and his colleagues detailed the search for the identity of a particular long-period transient they had observed emanating from a point in the Milky Way Galaxy about 3,000 light-years away from Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are three things you need to know about Kaplan\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-1-this-particular-long-period-radio-transient-is-a-white-dwarf-binary-star-and-a-rosetta-stone\"><strong>1. This particular long-period radio transient is a white dwarf binary star \u2013 and a \u201cRosetta Stone.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"alignleft uwm-c-img--left uwm-c-img--caption-gray\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"291\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/07\/David-Kaplan-291x300.webp\" alt=\"A head shot of a middle-aged white man with short, slightly curly black hair. He wears black glasses with round frames and a blue plaid, collared button-down shirt. \" class=\"wp-image-31883\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/07\/David-Kaplan-291x300.webp 291w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/07\/David-Kaplan.webp 346w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 291px) 100vw, 291px\" \/><figcaption>Professor David Kaplan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The paper\u2019s lead author is a PhD student named Kovi Rose who is part of an international team of researchers led by scientists at the University of Sydney in Australia. Kaplan works closely with this team, who uses Australia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csiro.au\/en\/about\/facilities-collections\/atnf\/askap-radio-telescope\">ASKAP radio telescope<\/a> to search the sky for objects called \u201cslow transients.\u201d A few years ago, the team noticed a new type of object that looked like a pulsar \u2013 but there was something strange about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like pulsars, the objects emitted regular bursts of energy in the form of radio waves. Unlike pulsars, which are the rapidly-spinning, dense core left behind after a star explodes, these objects emitted energy bursts at a fairly slow rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPulsars emit pulses once every 10 seconds for the <em>slowest <\/em>ones \u2013 so still relatively rapid. What they found was something that emitted pulses once about every 20 minutes,\u201d Kaplan said. \u201cThe slowest ones pulse every six hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the support of scientists like Kaplan, Rose began tracking one of these objects, dubbed \u201clong-period radio transients,\u201d that put out bursts of radio waves about every 80 minutes. The scientists tracked the energy signature to a particular portion of the Milky Way Galaxy. Then, star by star, they searched for the object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rose found a particular white dwarf star in orbit with another larger, less dense red dwarf. The pair had some unusual variations in their radio waves, optical waves, and x-ray waves which repeated every 80 minutes, matching the radio wave intervals that Rose was tracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe pulsing that we see is not coming from a spin. We think it\u2019s coming from an orbit,\u201d Kaplan explained. \u201cIn order for (these binary stars) to orbit once every 80 minutes, they have to be both very small and very close together. In fact, they\u2019re probably so small and so close together that some material from one star is spilling out onto the other star, and that gives rise to a particular signature that we saw in some observations that really ties it to this class of cataclysmic variables (which have been widely studied for the past hundred years).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s significant because \u201cThis system gives us a way to decode these signals. It could help us determine whether other long-period transients are more like pulsars or like white dwarf systems, acting like a stellar Rosetta stone,\u201d Rose said in a press release about the discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-2-this-discovery-adds-to-our-collective-knowledge-about-space\"><strong>2. This discovery adds to our collective knowledge about space.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"alignright uwm-c-img--right uwm-c-img--caption-gray\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"245\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/07\/Accreting-White-Dwarf-Carl-Knox-OzGrav-Swinburne-University-Of-Technology-and-Joshua-Preston-Pritchard-CSIRO-Space-Astronomy-245x300.webp\" alt=\"A graphic rendering of binary stars. A large orange circle represents a red dwarf star. It is connected by a blue ribbon, signifying material being accreted, to a small white circle which is the white dwarf star. Both circles are surrounded by thin circular lines representing magnetic fields.\" class=\"wp-image-31885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/07\/Accreting-White-Dwarf-Carl-Knox-OzGrav-Swinburne-University-Of-Technology-and-Joshua-Preston-Pritchard-CSIRO-Space-Astronomy-245x300.webp 245w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/07\/Accreting-White-Dwarf-Carl-Knox-OzGrav-Swinburne-University-Of-Technology-and-Joshua-Preston-Pritchard-CSIRO-Space-Astronomy.webp 490w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 245px) 100vw, 245px\" \/><figcaption>Artists\u2019 impression of a white dwarf binary system ASKAP J1745-5051, which is described in an article in the journal <em>Nature Astronomy<\/em>. UWM Professor David Kaplan is a co-author of the paper. Image by Carl Knox\/OzGrav\/Swinburne &amp; Joshua Preston Pritchard (CSIRO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The universe is vast and humanity is only beginning to scratch the surface of what strange and wild things live amongst the cosmos. Every new discovery is another step that betters our understanding of our place in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve been studying the sky for thousands of years, but we\u2019re still finding these new and exciting objects that we don\u2019t understand. Sometimes they lead to new pieces of fundamental physics that turn out to be really important,\u201d Kaplan said. For example, it was groundbreaking news when quasars and pulsars were discovered and identified, and today they have become an integral part of science curriculums. Long-period transients may be the next thing to be added to astronomy textbooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCosmic mysteries are inspirational. There\u2019s still so much out there that we don\u2019t understand,\u201d Kaplan added. \u201cThere are discoveries that we make about the universe that inspire the next generation of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h4\" id=\"h-3-this-discovery-has-led-to-even-more-questions\"><strong>3. This discovery has led to even more questions.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While identifying the white dwarf binary star was a significant step forward, scientists now have a new bevy of questions. For starters \u2013 are all long-period radio transients white dwarf binary stars?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s the fundamental question. And the answer is, we don\u2019t know,\u201d Kaplan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team has discovered other objects that behave similarly to Rose\u2019s binary star, but that are not white dwarfs. Are they the same type of astronomical object, or are they different? They\u2019ve also observed that some long-period radio transients seems to be intermittent and can \u201cturn on\u201d or off. How and why do they do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s a big effort to try and discover more of these and discover them more systematically, so we can try to understand which properties are accidents and which properties are required, and to study them over time as well,\u201d Kaplan said. \u201c(These objects all) walk like a duck, but do they talk like a duck? We don\u2019t know if they\u2019re both ducks or maybe one\u2019s a duck and the other\u2019s a goose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kaplan thinks there may be several different birds \u2013 or rather, types of stars \u2013 at work. No matter what they turn out to be, one thing is for certain: Humanity has barely scratched the surface of the mysteries of space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters &amp; Science<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, scientists discovered an unusual astronomical phenomenon: Objects that sent short bursts of radio waves at distinct intervals, emanating from various parts of space. Scientists named them \u201clong-period radio transients.\u201d They didn\u2019t know much about them, but &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":785,"featured_media":31881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[1648,1961,1946,1954,1846],"tags":[1857],"class_list":["post-31880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","category-in-focus-2026","category-in-focus-spotlight","category-natural-sciences","category-research-news","tag-july"],"uwm_unpublish_requested":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Letters &amp; Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus-2026\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UWM astronomer helps decipher a \u201cRosetta Stone\u201d in space\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago, scientists discovered an unusual astronomical phenomenon: Objects that sent short bursts of radio waves at distinct intervals, emanating from various parts of space. Scientists named them \u201clong-period radio transients.\u201d They didn\u2019t know much about them, but &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus-2026\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Letters &amp; Science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-07T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/07\/NASA-white-dwarf-accreting.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"721\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah E Vickery\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah E Vickery\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sarah E Vickery\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79ba9316328e022fb78add26239f8453\"},\"headline\":\"UWM astronomer helps decipher a \u201cRosetta Stone\u201d in space\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-07T15:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1019,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/255\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/NASA-white-dwarf-accreting.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"July\"],\"articleSection\":[\"In Focus\",\"In Focus 2026\",\"In Focus Spotlight\",\"Natural Sciences\",\"Research News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/\",\"name\":\"UWM astronomer helps decipher a \u201cRosetta Stone\u201d in space - Letters &amp; Science\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/255\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/NASA-white-dwarf-accreting.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-07T15:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79ba9316328e022fb78add26239f8453\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/in-focus-2026\\\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/255\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/NASA-white-dwarf-accreting.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/letters-science\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/255\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/NASA-white-dwarf-accreting.webp\",\"width\":721,\"height\":480,\"caption\":\"Scientists including UWM Professor David Kaplan have determined the identity of a long-period radio transient to be a white dwarf accreting material from its neighboring star, as illustrated in the graphic above. 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