A mysterious repeating ‘alien’ signal has researchers baffled

Alien Message? Mysterious signal from ‘powerful exotic object’ spotted repeatedly coming from the same place in the universe

Is it possible that Intelligent Alien Civilizations are trying to send us a message? Astronomers have detected a mysterious signal from ‘powerful exotic object’ spotted repeatedly coming from the same place in the universe

When astronomers received the first signals in the past, they believed them to be radio bursts caused by one off cosmic events. But now, astronomers have detected a signal repeatedly coming from the same location. This changes everything astronomers previously thought about the radio bursts as there may be something ‘else’ producing the fast radio bursts.

In the past, astronomers believed that fast radio bursts may have been produced by ‘cataclysmic’ events that eventually destroyed their sources, like a star exploding in a supernova or a neutron star collapsing into a black hole.

But the new study published in the Journal nature indicates that this might not be the case and that it is very likely that the fast radio bursts have another, more permanent origin.

Prior to the new discovery, astronomers believed that the fast radio bursts were one-time events, occurring during cataclysmic events, like when their source – a star exploding in a supernova, for example, or a neutron star collapsing into a black hole occurs. But the signals are repeating, and come from the same source, so these events are unlikely to be the cause of the radio signals.

The anomalous signals are fleeting bursts of radio waves that flash across the cosmos in a matter of milliseconds before disappearing almost as fast as appearing. But now, for the first time ever, astronomers have detected the short bursts of radio waves are in fact coming from the same place in the universe, far beyond our own galaxy.

The mysterious signals were detected for the first time in 2007 and have baffled astronomers ever since their discovery. Now, due to anomalous ‘repeated signals’ scientists have come together in hopes of trying to identify what might be causing these. According to reports, the newest radio bursts are believed to originate from an ‘extremely powerful object’ which is able to produce multiple bursts in under a minute.

“Not only did these bursts repeat, but their brightness and spectra also differ from those of other FRBs,” notes Laura Spitler, first author of the new paper, in a statement.

According to Professor Jason Hessels, an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, researchers hope to use the direction the pulses are coming from in order to understand what is causing them.

He said: ‘Finding the host galaxy of this source is critical to understanding its properties.

‘Once we have precisely localized the repeater’s position on the sky, we will be able to compare observations from optical and X-ray telescopes and see if there is a galaxy there.’

Paul Scholz, an astronomer working at the McGill University who first spotted the signal, said the repeating signal was in fact ‘exciting’.

He added: ‘I knew immediately that the discovery would be extremely important in the study of fast radio bursts.’

Scholz and fellow astronomers have discovered 10 new fast radio bursts, suggesting that the bursts very likely originated from a ‘very exotic object’, like a rotating neutron star with never-before-seen power.

The research which was published in the Journal Nature is yet another study published in the last couple of days, and comes days after scientists announced to have pinpointed the location of a fast Radio burst for the first time, but these claims are now being questioned by scientists. In order to pinpoint the exact location of the unusual event, scientists will need to better understand the source of the bursts.

“Once we have precisely localized the repeater’s position on the sky, we will be able to compare observations from optical and X-ray telescopes and see if there is a galaxy there,” says Jason Hessels, associate professor at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. “Finding the host galaxy of this source is critical to understanding its properties.”

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