Two astronomers, Ermanno
Borra and his graduate student Eric Trottier, from the Lval University in
Quebec have recently analysed over 2.5 million stars and galaxies for pulse of
light emitted at regular intervals. The team of the astronomers believes that
alien civilizations are behind those pulses of light or signals.
The team of researchers
analysed the Fourier Transform (FT) of the light spectrum. The FT is a mathematical
tool that allows us to work out where the components of a signal come from. The FT analysis has found periodic
modulated components which are caused by rapid light pulses (less than a
trillionth of a second) generated by Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (ETI).
In the paper, from the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, they removed every other
explanation such as instrumental effects, rotation of molecules, rapid
stellar pulsations, and peculiar chemistry. This whole case is very interesting.
“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 researchers wrote in the 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.”
These very fast
pulses will have to be generated by extremely powerful lasers, which are, to
some extent, similar to the one at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In previous publications Borra has stated that this area of astronomy has not
been investigated as much, which raises the question on why these aliens would choose
to communicate in a complicated and energy-consuming way.
The researchers admit that although they believe aliens is
the most likely explanation, this is yet to be confirmed. Stephen
Hawking-backed project Breakthrough Listen will initiate a follow-up observations of these 234
stars.
However, his
team at UC Berkeley, where the project's science program is based, invite
people to be sceptical.
The Breakthrough
Listen team said in a statement. “The one in 10,000 objects with unusual spectra seen by
Borra and Trottier are certainly worthy of additional study. However,
extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. It is too early to
unequivocally attribute these purported signals to the activities of extra-terrestrial
civilizations,”