Strange messages coming from the stars are ‘probably’ from aliens: scientists

A group of scientists looking for aliens say that the signals are encouraging

Scientists have heard unusual messages from deep in space that they think are coming from aliens.

A new analysis of strange modulations in just 234 of the 2.5 million stars that have been observed during a survey of the sky point toward the possibility that the signals could be coming from extraterrestrial intelligence that is looking to alert us to their existence.



“We find that the detected signals have exactly the shape of an [extraterrestrial intelligence] signal predicted in the previous publication and are therefore in agreement with this hypothesis,” write EF Borra and E Trottier in a new paper. “The fact that they are only found in a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral range centered near the spectral type of the sun is also in agreement with the ETI hypothesis,” the two scientists from Laval University in Quebec wrote.

According to the scientists, there appears to be no obvious explanation for what is going on leaving them to conclude that the messages are coming from aliens. However, they added that further work will need to be done to confirm or deny that hypothesis. This will be done by watching for the same signals on different equipment so that all other explanations can be discarded.



“The one in 10,000 objects with unusual spectra seen by Borra and Trottier are certainly worthy of additional study,” the team said in a statement. “However, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

“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."



“Careful work must be undertaken to determine false positive rates, to rule out natural and instrumental explanations, and most importantly, to confirm detection using two or more independent telescopes.”

The research has appeared in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, under the title 'Discovery of peculiar periodic spectral modulations in a small fraction of solar type stars'. Breakthrough Listen – an initiative set up this year to look for alien life and supported by people including Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg – said that the message was promising.

This article originally appeared on Independent.