China is claiming that its enormous "Sky Eye" telescope may have picked up
trace signals from a distant alien civilization, according to a recently
posted and subsequently deleted report by Chinese scientists.
Astronomers at Beijing Normal University have discovered "several cases of
possible technological traces and extraterrestrial civilizations from
outside the Earth," according to a report published Tuesday (June 14) in
Science and Technology Daily, the official newspaper of China's Ministry of
Science and Technology.
The signals were picked up by China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical
radio Telescope (FAST), nicknamed "Sky Eye," which is the largest radio
telescope in the world. Sky Eye was put to work scanning deep space for
radio signals that could indicate extraterrestrial life in 2019; sifting
through that data in 2020, the researchers said they spotted two suspicious
narrow-band, potentially artificial radio signals. Then, in 2022, a targeted
survey of known exoplanets found another strange narrow-band radio signal,
bringing the tally up to three.
As the signals are narrow-band radio waves typically only used by human
aircraft and satellites, they could have been produced by alien technology.
However, the scientists say their findings are preliminary and should be
taken with caution until the analysis is complete.
"These are several narrow-band electromagnetic signals different from the
past, and the team is currently working on further investigation," Zhang
Tongjie, head scientist at the China Extraterrestrial Civilization Research
Group at Beijing Normal University, told the Science and Technology Daily.
"The possibility that the suspicious signal is some kind of radio
interference is also very high, and it needs to be further confirmed and
ruled out. This may be a long process."
Following its publication, the report quickly began to circulate on the
Chinese social media network Weibo and was picked up by a number of other
state-run outlets. The reasons behind its sudden deletion are unclear.
The signals aren't the first time that scientists have been baffled by radio
waves from deep space. In August 1977, a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence) search performed by the Ohio State University's Big Ear
telescope picked up an incredibly strong, minute-long, electromagnetic burst
that flared at a frequency scientists suspected could be used by alien
civilizations. Upon spotting the signal on a data printout, the scientist
working with the telescope that night, Jerry Ehman, hastily scribbled "Wow!"
in red pen on the page, giving the detection its famous name.
Follow-up searches in the same region of space have all returned
empty-handed, and later research has suggested that the signal could have
come from a sun-like star located in the constellation Sagittarius, Live
Science previously reported. Nonetheless, the signal's source is still a
mystery.
Chinese astronomers are keen to rule out radio interference because it has
famously waylaid alien-hunting scientists in the recent past. In 2019,
astronomers spotted a signal beamed to Earth from Proxima Centauri — the
nearest star system to our sun (sitting roughly 4.2 light-years away) and
home to at least one potentially habitable planet.
The signal was a narrow-band radio wave typically associated with human-made
objects, which led scientists to entertain the exciting possibility that it
came from alien technology. New studies released two years later, however,
suggested that the signal was most likely produced by malfunctioning human
technology, Live Science previously reported. Similarly, another famous set
of signals once supposed to have come from aliens, detected between 2011 and
2014, turned out to have actually been made by scientists microwaving their
lunches.
Tonjie has added that his team is planning to take repeat observations of
the strange signals to conclusively rule out any radio interference and
obtain as much information about them as possible.
"We look forward to the [FAST telescope] being the first to discover and
confirm the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations," Tongjie told the
Science and Technology Daily.
The discrepancy between the universe's scope and age and the apparent lack
of intelligent life-forms beyond Earth — called the Fermi Paradox — has long
troubled scientists. The paradox takes its name from the casual lunchtime
musings of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi, who, after
contemplating the conundrum, is famously said to have remarked "so where is
everybody?"
Originally published on
Live Science.
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Space & Astrophysics