this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2026
55 points (95.1% liked)

Astronomy

6991 readers
42 users here now

A community for sharing astronomy-related news, content, research, photographs, etc.

When sharing photographs and articles, please make an effort to include source URLs.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Kovi Rose, a doctoral researcher at the University of Sydney, led an international team that discovered what researchers are calling a “Rosetta stone” for these mysterious signals. Just as the original Rosetta Stone unlocked the meaning of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, this newly identified star system may finally give astronomers a key for interpreting one of the stranger unsolved problems in modern astronomy.

“For the first time we have pinpointed the origin of these signals, confirming the source to be a ‘cataclysmic variable’, or an accreting white dwarf star,” Rose said in a statement.

top 5 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I wonder if they didn't go a bit too far with the analogy here.

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

It had me in the wrong trail

[–] ChocolateFrostedSugarBombs@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

So... If I'm understanding correctly... They didn't find a Rosetta Stone. They found the origin of the signals... They found a direction, not a decoding map.

[–] Psiczar@aussie.zone 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, I’m struggling to understand the Rosetta Stone analogy as well.

Yeah... Maybe a generous interpretation would be they found what they hope to be the Rosetta Stone for the signals but that's as yet unconfirmed.