{"id":158720,"date":"2026-08-17T07:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=158720"},"modified":"2026-08-17T08:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:00:17","slug":"uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"UWM astronomer helps decipher a ‘Rosetta Stone’ in space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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<\/div>\n

\n
\"\"
David Kaplan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scientists named them \u201clong-period radio transients.\u201d They didn\u2019t know much about them, but they knew what the objects were\u00a0<\/span>not<\/em>. They were not quasars. They were not pulsars. They were<\/em> a mystery, but thanks to 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<\/div>\n

\n

Kaplan, professor of physics and astrophysics at UWM, is one of the authors of a paper published in the prestigious journal\u00a0<\/span>Nature Astronomy<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>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<\/div>\n

\n

Learn more about this astrological phenomenon in this story<\/a> by Sarah Vickery on the website of UWM\u2019s College of Letters & Science.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UWM professor David Kaplan is one of the authors of a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy that details the search for answers to a mystery in the Milky Way Galaxy about 3,000 light-years from Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3151,"featured_media":158722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174,175],"tags":[],"section":[139],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[338],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-158720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-research","section-science-technology","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","related-coverage-research"],"uwm_unpublish_requested":false,"yoast_head":"\nUWM astronomer helps decipher a 'Rosetta Stone' in space<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UWM professor David Kaplan is one of the authors of a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy that details the search for answers to a mystery in the Milky Way Galaxy about 3,000 light-years from Earth.\" \/>\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\/news\/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 'Rosetta Stone' in space\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UWM professor David Kaplan is one of the authors of a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy that details the search for answers to a mystery in the Milky Way Galaxy about 3,000 light-years from Earth.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-astronomer-helps-decipher-a-rosetta-stone-in-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UWM REPORT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-17T12:59:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-17T13:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2026\/08\/NASA-white-dwarf-accreting750x500.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John G. 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