Alien signals from deep space ‘probably’ sent by extraterrestrial civilisations, astronomers claim
Stargazers have picked up 234 transmissions which could finally answer question of whether we're alone in the universe
SCIENTISTS have revealed they have received strange signals from distant stars which they say could have been sent by aliens.
Ermanno F. Borra and Eric Trottier made the shocking revelation in a report in a prominent scientific journal.
The pair picked up no less than 234 signals, which they believe most likely came from aliens.
Overall, the two astronomers from Quebec’s Laval University analysed 2.5million readings detected by a colossal telescope in New Mexico, USA.
The 8ft-wide device – known as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) – is said to have created the most detailed 3D maps of the universe that have ever been made.
Now the results are due to be documented in a journal called Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in a paper with the title 'Signals probably from Extraterrestrial Intelligence'.
The report on arXiv.org reads: “The signals cannot be caused by instrumental or data analysis effects because they are present in only a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral range.
“And because signal to noise ratio considerations predict that the signal should mostly be detected in the brightest objects, while this is not the case.
“We consider several possibilities, such as rotational transitions in molecules, rapid pulsations, Fourier transform of spectral lines and signals generated by Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI).”
The paper goes on to suggest and then rule out various possible explanations.
After discounting the chance of the signals being caused by several other natural phenomena, the authors turn to the alien life.
The paper continues: “Finally we consider the possibility, predicted in a previous published paper, that the signals are caused by light pulses generated by Extraterrestrial Intelligence to make us aware of their existence.
“We find that the detected signals have exactly the shape of an ETI signal predicted in the previous publication and are therefore in agreement with this hypothesis.
“The fact that they are only found in a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral range centred near the spectral type of the sun is also in agreement with the ETI hypothesis.”
But the pair added there was a faint possibility the signals could be down to “highly peculiar chemical compositions in a small fraction of galactic halo stars”.
And a statement from the SETI Institute's Breakthrough Listen project – the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of civilisations beyond Earth – agreed that it was too soon to say for certain that it was aliens.
The £100million Breakthrough Listen project, backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Stephen Hawking, said: “It is too early to unequivocally attribute these purported signals to the activities of extraterrestrial civilisations.
“Internationally agreed-upon protocols for searches for evidence of advanced life beyond Earth (SETI) require candidates to be confirmed by independent groups using their own telescopes, and for all natural explanations to be exhausted before invoking extraterrestrial agents as an explanation.”
But the project said it planned to help independently verify Borra and Trottier’ study in order to conclusively rule out other possible explanations.
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