NASA has spotted something sending cosmic morse signals. The universe is always reaching out to us. Strange pulses, flickers of light \u2014 they come from every direction. And yet, we\u2019ve never found life beyond Earth. Some believe that\u2019s because civilizations out there are staying quiet. Most of the time, those signals are just stars doing what stars do \u2014 blinking, beating, like distant beacons. But recently, scientists spotted something different. A light, incredibly bright, pointed straight at us. And only the strongest telescope we have was able to catch it.<\/p>\n
What is signaling Earth?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just stars that send \u201ccosmic morse signals\u201d into space \u2014 black holes can do it too. When something falls into one, a part of it can be thrown back out at nearly the speed of light. This happens because of a reaction between protons and electrons right before the matter is swallowed. These violent jets aren\u2019t as common as the ones stars produce, but they\u2019re still out there.<\/p>\n
Young stars, in particular, are known for throwing out strong bursts of gas and dust. This is part of how they\u2019re born. As material from the disk around the star spirals inward, some of it gets caught by the star\u2019s magnetic field and is shot out in two narrow streams, shooting away from the star\u2019s poles.<\/p>\n
NASA spotted cosmic morse signals<\/p>\n
From Earth, we can only spot these cosmic jets with the help of NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory \u2014 a telescope built to see the universe in high-energy light. It\u2019s one of our best tools for looking deep into space. And now, it\u2019s spotted something that could shift how we understand stars and how they form.<\/p>\n
Something strange in the sky \u2014 called ASKAP J1832 \u2014 has caught the eyes of astronomers. It\u2019s about 15,000 light-years away, and it is like cosmic morse signals: it helps us learn more about a class of space objects we still barely understand.<\/p>\n
This one belongs to a new group scientists started identifying in 2022, known as \u201clong-period radio transients.\u201d Unlike pulsars, which fire off signals every few seconds or faster, ASKAP J1832 moves much slower. It sends out a radio burst every 44 minutes, with each signal lasting several minutes. That\u2019s thousands of times slower than what we\u2019re used to seeing from spinning neutron stars.<\/p>\n
Two telescopes worked simultaneously<\/p>\n