Astronomers Spot Potentially Artificial Radio Signal From Nearby Star

Breakthrough Listen uses radio telescopes like the Parkes telescope in Australia or the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. These instruments regularly record what look like signals from space but are actually due to local interference from Earth. In April and May of 2019, the team caught something different — a narrow beam transmission around 980MHz that lasted 30 hours. The signal, dubbed BLC1, also appeared to shift in such a way that it could have been coming from a planet orbiting the star.

The team is still preparing a paper that the scientific community can scrutinize, but there are a few reasons to be excited here. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our solar system, and in 2016, researchers announced the discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone. Later, astronomers spotted a second, larger planet farther out in the solar system. So, it’s theoretically possible there’s life on one of those planets, particularly the one in the habitable zone.

However, it’s still far too early to start celebrating the discovery of alien life. BLC1 is a candidate signal that needs to be analyzed, and if we’re being realistic, it’s doubtful that intelligent aliens live in the next solar system over. The Milky Way galaxy has an estimated 300 million exoplanets and is almost 14 billion years old. To find another intelligent species existing at the same time as us just a few light years away would be exceedingly improbable. If said aliens are also using radio frequency technology at the same time as we are, that’s an even bigger coincidence.

This is not the first signal that could be interpreted as having artificial origins. The famous “Wow” signal detected in 1977 by SETI researchers is another example. That one didn’t pan out, but BLC1 could be the first serious contender in decades. If this isn’t it, well, there are a lot more stars out there. The only way we’re going to find them is to keep looking.

Continue reading

Astronomers Spot Earth-Sized Rogue Planet Wandering the Galaxy

Astronomers have identified more than 4,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars but just a few "rogue planets" wandering the galaxy without a star to call home. A new study claims to have spotted one of these worlds, and it may be a small, rocky world like Earth.

Astronomers Might Finally Know the Source of Fast Radio Bursts

A trio of new studies report on an FRB within our own galaxy. Because this one was so much closer than past signals, scientists were able to track it to a particular type of neutron star known as a magnetar.

Astronomers Have Detected a Planet’s Radio Emissions 51 Light-Years Away

The researchers claim this marks the first time an exoplanet has been detected in the radio bands.

Harvard Astronomer Still Believes Interstellar Object Was Alien Technology

Scientists have classified 'Oumuamua variously as an asteroid or a comet, but Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard's Department of Astronomy, believes it was really alien — a piece of alien technology we mistook for a naturally occurring space rock.