A strange radio signal that was once thought to be a possible sign, according to new research
On April 29, 2019, astronomers discovered a signalwhich was directed towards Earth from the direction of Proxima Centauri. It is the closest star system to our Sun (about 4.2 light years away) with at least one potentially habitable planet. Since the signal was caught in a narrow 982 MHz radio frequency band that rarely emanate from planes or satellites, the researchers interpreted this as a possible sign of alien technology.
However, the signal, which lasted for about five hours,no longer spawned on subsequent scans of Proxima Centauri. According to two new studies published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the reason is that the signal did not come from a star system at all.
"It looks like it's artificial radio interference fromsome kind of technology, probably on the surface of the Earth,” Sophia Sheikh, an astronomer at the University of California at Berkeley and co-author of both papers, told Nature.com.
In the first of two new studiesSheikh and her colleagues described in detail the signal, called BLC1. Astronomers recorded a five-hour stream of radio waves using the Parkes Murriyang radio telescope in southeastern Australia during a 26-hour survey of Proxima Centauri, and the signal seemed special to them. However, after the signal did not reappear in subsequent observations of the star, the researchers took a closer look at the original data. It turned out that their automatic sorting program had previously ignored several signals that were very similar to BLC1, but were emitted at different frequencies.
In the second of two new articlesIn Nature, researchers concluded that BLC1 and these “similar” signals were components of the same radio source several hundred kilometers from the Parkes Murriyang telescope. Scientists believe that the fact that the signal appeared only during the five-hour observation of Proxima Centauri is just a coincidence.
Since he didn't appear again, perhapsthe signal came from faulty electronic equipment that was either turned off or being repaired. The frequency range in the signal was also “consistent with conventional clock frequencies used in digital electronics,” the researchers said. They plan to conduct new research to find out which specific source “deceived” astronomers.
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