# Alien Hunters Discover Mysterious Signal from Proxima Centauri



## micropage7 (Dec 24, 2020)

Sixty-four-meter radio telescope at Parkes Observatory in Australia, which detected potential signals from Proxima Centauri last year. Credit: Lisa Maree Williams _Getty Images_ 



It’s never aliens—until it is. Today news leaked in the British newspaper the _Guardian_ of a mysterious signal coming from the closest star to our own, Proxima Centauri, a star too dim to see from Earth with the naked eye that is nonetheless a cosmic stone’s throw away at just 4.2 light-years. Found this autumn in archival data gathered last year, the signal appears to emanate from the direction of our neighboring star and cannot yet be dismissed as Earth-based interference, raising the very faint prospect that it is a transmission from some form of advanced extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI)—a so-called “technosignature.” Now, speaking to _Scientific American_, the scientists behind the discovery caution there is still much work to be done, but admit the interest is justified. “It has some particular properties that caused it to pass many of our checks, and we cannot yet explain it,” says Andrew Siemion from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Most curiously, it occupies a very narrow band of the radio spectrum: 982 megahertz, specifically, which is a region typically bereft of transmissions from human-made satellites and spacecraft. “We don’t know of any natural way to compress electromagnetic energy into a single bin in frequency” such as this one, Siemion says. Perhaps, he says, some as-yet-unknown exotic quirk of plasma physics could be a natural explanation for the tantalizingly concentrated radio waves. But “for the moment, the only source that we know of is technological.” 

The detection was made by a $100 million project called Breakthrough Listen, led by Siemion and funded by tech billionaire Yuri Milner under the umbrella of Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives. The goal of this multiyear endeavor—which began in 2015 with a star-studded announcement attended by Stephen Hawking and other space-science luminaries—is to buy observing time on radio telescopes around the world to search the skies for evidence of technological civilizations. That pursuit, of course, is more commonly known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). To date, no such evidence has conclusively been found despite more than a half century of modest-but-steady SETI activity, with any potential signals almost always ruled out as originating from satellites orbiting Earth or other human-caused interference. 

“If you see such a signal and it’s not coming from the surface of Earth, you know you have detected extraterrestrial technology,” says Jason Wright, a SETI-centric astronomer at Penn State University in Pennsylvania. “Unfortunately, humans have launched a lot of extraterrestrial technology.” 

The story of this latest SETI spectacle really began on April 29, 2019, when scientists affiliated with Breakthrough Listen started collecting the data that would later reveal the intriguing signal. A team had been using the Parkes radio telescope in Australia to study Proxima Centauri for signs of flares coming from the red dwarf star, in part to understand how such flares might affect Proxima’s planets. The system hosts at least two worlds. The first, dubbed Proxima b upon its discovery in 2016, is about 1.2 times the size of Earth and in an 11-day orbit. Proxima b resides in the star’s “habitable zone,” a hazily defined sector in which liquid water could exist upon a rocky planet’s surface—provided, that is, Proxima Centauri’s intense stellar flares have not sputtered away a world’s atmosphere. Another planet, the roughly seven-Earth-mass Proxima c, was discovered in 2019 in a frigid 5.2-year orbit. 

Using Parkes, the astronomers had observed the star for 26 hours as part of their stellar-flare study, but, as is routine within the Breakthrough Listen project, they also flagged the resulting data for a later look to seek out any candidate SETI signals. The task fell to a young intern in Siemion’s SETI program at Berkeley, Shane Smith, who is also an undergraduate student at Hillsdale College. Smith began sifting through the data in June of this year, but it was not until late October that he stumbled upon the curious narrowband emission, needle-sharp at 982.002 megahertz, hidden in plain view in the Proxima Centauri observations. From there, things happened fast—with good reason. “It’s the most exciting signal that we’ve found in the Breakthrough Listen project, because we haven’t had a signal jump through this many of our filters before,” says Sofia Sheikh from Penn State University, who helmed the subsequent analysis of the signal for Breakthrough Listen and is the lead author on an upcoming paper detailing that work, which will be published in early 2021. Soon, the team began calling the signal by a more formal name: BLC1, for “Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1.” 

To pique any SETI researcher’s interest, a signal must first endure a barrage of simple automated tests to rule out obvious terrestrial interference. Hundreds of candidates, however, routinely pass this phase and are singled out for further investigation. From there, almost all will be dismissed as some mirage or error—perhaps an excess of static, for instance—that fooled the winnowing algorithm, eliminating them from consideration as any sort of transmission from talkative aliens. “Except this one,” Sheikh says. 

Revisiting the data from 2019, Sheikh and her colleagues noted that the telescope had looked at Proxima multiple times in scans lasting 30 minutes over the course of a week. Breakthrough Listen uses a technique called “nodding,” where the telescope will spend a period of time looking at a target and then an equivalent period looking elsewhere in the sky, to check that any potential signal is truly coming from the target and not, say, someone microwaving their lunch in an observatory’s cafeteria. “In five of the 30-minute observations over about three hours we see this thing come back,” Sheikh says, a hint that the signal indeed originated from Proxima Centauri—or some other deep-space source in that part of the sky—before making its way to Earth. 

One might think, then, that the case would be closed. But while a natural cosmic source may seem unlikely, it cannot yet be ruled out—and, the thinking goes, as unlikely as a natural explanation might be, an “unnatural” explanation such as aliens is even less likely still. Consequently, every member of the Breakthrough Listen team interviewed for this article steadfastly insists the chance of this being anything other than terrestrial interference is exceedingly remote. “The most likely thing is that it’s some human cause,” says Pete Worden, executive director of the Breakthrough Initiatives. “And when I say most likely, it’s like 99.9 [percent].” 

That rational skepticism extends all the way to the top. “When we launched Breakthrough Listen with Stephen Hawking in 2015,” Milner says, “it was understood that the most rigorous scientific approach will be used to analyze all candidate signals.” Milner and seemingly all the SETI researchers his funding supports fully expect BLC1 to wither away under the project’s now-intense scrutiny. But, just maybe, it won’t. 

For the time being, months of further analysis are in store to definitively rule out other potential sources. And BLC1 itself, while seeming to come from Proxima Centauri, does not quite fit expectations for a technosignature from that system. First, the signal bears no trace of modulation—tweaks to its properties that can be used to convey information. “BLC1 is, for all intents and purposes, just a tone, just one note,” Siemion says. “It has absolutely no additional features that we can discern at this point.” And second, the signal “drifts,” meaning that it appears to be changing very slightly in frequency—an effect that could be due to the motion of our planet, or of a moving extraterrestrial source such as a transmitter on the surface of one of Proxima Centauri’s worlds. But the drift is the reverse of what one would naively expect for a signal originating from a world twirling around our sun’s nearest neighboring star. “We would expect the signal to be going down in frequency like a trombone,” Sheikh says. “What we see instead is like a slide whistle—the frequency goes up.” 

So far, follow-up observations using Parkes have failed to turn up the signal again, with a repeat observation being a necessity to confirm that BLC1 is a genuine technosignature. “If it’s an ETI it must eventually be replicable, because it’s unlikely it would be a one-off,” says Shami Chatterjee, a radio astronomer from Cornell University in New York. “If an independent team at an independent observatory can recover the same signal, then hell yes. I would bet money that they won’t, but I would love to be wrong.” 

Nonetheless, it remains one of the most intriguing signals found by Breakthrough Listen—or indeed any SETI program—to date, one that Sheikh compares to the so-called “Wow! signal” detected in 1977, which some believed to be of extraterrestrial origin. “I think it’s on par with the Wow! signal,” she says. More likely than not, however, this is simply some previously unknown source of Earth-based interference. In a few months we’ll likely know for certain one way or another. But for the time being, it’s never aliens—right? “I hate that phrase, because if you say that, then why even look?” Wright says. “What we mean by that is that it’s never been aliens _before_.” 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/...over-mysterious-signal-from-proxima-centauri/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...ious-radio-signal-proxima-centauri-180976602/

https://www.theguardian.com/science...liens-investigate-radio-beam-from-nearby-star


----------



## R-T-B (Dec 27, 2020)

Cool it's coming from Proxima Centauri.  That's cosmically speaking, about as close as it gets...


----------



## INSTG8R (Dec 27, 2020)

i remember running SETI@home on my PC back. In the day.Stiff like this ignites my sense of possibilities again.


----------



## SpaceGeek (Mar 5, 2021)

I don't believe that this signal was sent by aliens. Although Proxima Centauri is rather close to us, we don't have a technology that'll let us get to it. There's no evidence that aliens exist; why do you still believe in them?


----------



## R00kie (Mar 5, 2021)

SpaceGeek said:


> I don't believe that this signal was sent by aliens. Although Proxima Centauri is rather close to us, we don't have a technology that'll let us get to it. There's no evidence that aliens exist; why do you still believe in them?


why do you not?


----------



## xtreemchaos (Mar 5, 2021)

SpaceGeek said:


> why do you still believe in them?


the math will disagree with you bud   .


----------



## neatfeatguy (Mar 5, 2021)

SpaceGeek said:


> I don't believe that this signal was sent by aliens. Although Proxima Centauri is rather close to us, we don't have a technology that'll let us get to it. There's no evidence that aliens exist; why do you still believe in them?



Probably the same reason some folk believe there is a "god". Something to believe in; that there is something else out there and not just us.

You never know, one day maybe "god" or aliens will be actually discovered (unless you already believe in the conspiracy theories about how aliens already live among the humans and the aliens working in tandem with humans under Antarctica and that humans already have a vast fleet of space vehicles that can travel vast distances and that we've already built and occupy bases on the moon and Mars and that we already have time travel capabilities and age reversing capabilities and.....well, the list goes on).


----------



## KLiKzg (Apr 18, 2021)

So far, we don't know if it's repeatable.

Though Proxima centaury b is in the "green zone".


----------



## DeathtoGnomes (Apr 18, 2021)

If there is a repeat signal, I think it will be on a different frequency. If you see post-apocalyptic movies, some show they set up a signal repeat on a timer and across several frequencies. If earth was to send out signals, which they have, not sure if we still do, I would not use just one frequency. The sad part is that we are still limited in that we have to send signals from earth and not from orbit or even the moon. 

I wont hold my breath but the idea place to set up a radio telescope would be the other side of the moon. But, ofc, politics has other ideas where to spend such money, maybe someone could suggest that to Yuri Milner and get us there.


----------



## KLiKzg (Apr 18, 2021)

It would, if we are "eavesdropping" on their signals. Our mobile phones use always the same frequencies. Our DVB-T uses always the same frequencies. Our radio uses always the same frequency.


----------



## DeathtoGnomes (Apr 18, 2021)

KLiKzg said:


> It would, if we are "eavesdropping" on their signals. Our mobile phones use always the same frequencies. Our DVB-T uses always the same frequencies. Our radio uses always the same frequency.


Really? so we are now gonna be using our mobile phones for getting in touch with off world family... 

( not in your next 10 lifetimes either...)


----------



## hat (Apr 18, 2021)

SpaceGeek said:


> I don't believe that this signal was sent by aliens. Although Proxima Centauri is rather close to us, we don't have a technology that'll let us get to it. There's no evidence that aliens exist; why do you still believe in them?


For me, it's plain mathematical probability. There's estimated to be somewhere between 100-400 *b*illion stars in the Milky Way alone. Our Sun is just one of 100 billion, on the low end. That means for us to be the only life in our galaxy alone, that's a 0.00000000001% chance. 

Furthermore, there's estimated to be, again, some 100 billion galaxies out there in the observable universe, of which our Milky Way, containing 100 billion stars on its own, is just one. See where I'm going with this? The chances for us to be the only life in the universe is fantastically small. If we're _it_, I would be rather disappointed, frankly.


----------



## dirtyferret (Apr 18, 2021)

hat said:


> For me, it's plain mathematical probability. There's estimated to be somewhere between 100-400 *b*illion stars in the Milky Way alone. Our Sun is just one of 100 billion, on the low end. That means for us to be the only life in our galaxy alone, that's a 0.00000000001% chance.
> 
> Furthermore, there's estimated to be, again, some 100 billion galaxies out there in the observable universe, of which our Milky Way, containing 100 billion stars on its own, is just one. See where I'm going with this? The chances for us to be the only life in the universe is fantastically small. If we're _it_, I would be rather disappointed, frankly.


And that's assuming there is only one universe....


----------



## 64K (Apr 18, 2021)

hat said:


> For me, it's plain mathematical probability. There's estimated to be somewhere between 100-400 *b*illion stars in the Milky Way alone. Our Sun is just one of 100 billion, on the low end. That means for us to be the only life in our galaxy alone, that's a 0.00000000001% chance.
> 
> Furthermore, there's estimated to be, again, some 100 billion galaxies out there in the observable universe, of which our Milky Way, containing 100 billion stars on its own, is just one. See where I'm going with this? The chances for us to be the only life in the universe is fantastically small. If we're _it_, I would be rather disappointed, frankly.



Problem is that we have no data to calculate odds. If we could find even 1 planet that sustains intelligent life in our galaxy then we could extrapolate that into possibly hundreds of billions of planets in the universe with intelligent life but right now trying to calculate the odds is impossible.


----------



## dirtyferret (Apr 18, 2021)

SpaceGeek said:


> There's no evidence that aliens exist


There is a picture that exists from the 80's of an actual alien from another planet


----------



## Shrek (Apr 18, 2021)

Slightly off topic is the wonderful movie

"The Dish"

about Parkes during the moon landing.

(1) The Dish Trailer - Bing video

It is not the first time Parkes thinks it saw a mysterious signal

Microwave oven to blame for mystery signal that left astronomers stumped | Astronomy | The Guardian


----------



## Vendor (Apr 18, 2021)

SpaceGeek said:


> I don't believe that this signal was sent by aliens. Although Proxima Centauri is rather close to us, we don't have a technology that'll let us get to it. There's no evidence that aliens exist; why do you still believe in them?


As if all 1000s of abduction cases in USA every year and so many proven ones too are false. Look up Travis Walton abduction story of 70s, i watched it 4 years ago in Paranormal witness on discovery channel, 4 out of 5 guys passed the polygraph and the one who didn't was just pissed off and got angry with the questions.


----------



## KLiKzg (Apr 18, 2021)

DeathtoGnomes said:


> Really? so we are now gonna be using our mobile phones for getting in touch with off world family...
> 
> ( not in your next 10 lifetimes either...)


From all the forrest, you are missing the tree.


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 18, 2021)

Vendor said:


> proven ones


Look, there's a lot of "weird" cases without explanations but there are no "proven" alien abductions.  If there were we would not be having this discussion.


----------



## 64K (Apr 18, 2021)

Vendor said:


> As if all 1000s of abduction cases in USA every year and so many proven ones too are false. Look up Travis Walton abduction story of 70s, i watched it 4 years ago in Paranormal witness on discovery channel, 4 out of 5 guys passed the polygraph and the one who didn't was just pissed off and got angry with the questions.



Polygraphs aren't proof of anything really and that's why they aren't allowed in court as evidence. Not only are they inaccurate but they are easy to pass if you train your mind. I had to take a polygraph when I was 16 and I lied my ass off and still passed though the tester did mark one questionable entry but it wasn't conclusive.

Also mentally ill people can believe what they saw to the extent that it is true to them even though it is illusion.


----------



## DeathtoGnomes (Apr 18, 2021)

KLiKzg said:


> From all the forrest, you are missing the tree.


maybe you should learn to more clear in your posts. Say what you mean exactly, dont play dumb.


----------



## Mats (Apr 18, 2021)

DeathtoGnomes said:


> maybe you should learn to more clear in your posts. Say what you mean exactly, dont play dumb.


Easy now. You missed his first point, and there's nothing wrong with that.


----------



## dirtyferret (Apr 18, 2021)

64K said:


> I had to take a polygraph when I was 16 and I lied my ass off and still passed though the tester did mark one questionable entry but it wasn't conclusive.


So you do know where all those bodies are buried?


----------



## the54thvoid (Apr 18, 2021)

Stay on topic folks.

Thanks.


----------



## Bones (Apr 18, 2021)

xtreemchaos said:


> the math will disagree with you bud   .


 To be fair:
"The Math" can only show a percentage chance of it being so - It does _not_ nor can show it as an absolute to say life is out there. 
Yes - There is a possibility of it, yet until something that's of concrete substance going beyond math appears, personally I can't really believe it myself. 

Even if life that's of a microbial nature is discovered elsewhere, that in itself doesn't mean you've got life capable of sending signals out there..... 
But would certainly up the odds of it being _possible_.


----------



## Shrek (Apr 18, 2021)

There is a rather depressing thought that very soon after technological life can send radio signals it terminates itself with nuclear war; this would explain why we don't detect technological life.

There is another interesting argument that says that one is most likely to be born where the human population is the greatest (in time), which, if true, would mean that there are unlikely to be many humans in the future, and this would tally with the first argument.


----------



## xtreemchaos (Apr 19, 2021)

why would thay use radio signals ? just because we use them, it could be very primitive to some other life and thay have found something much better that dont bleed every time thay use it and then theres us yes humans we not nice we kill and eat everything all roads lead to war and the whole planet is set in a slow death dive to distruction and most dont give a shit. what self respecting life form from another world/s would come near us eh ?


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 19, 2021)

xtreemchaos said:


> what self respecting life form would come near us eh ?


Doggos


----------



## kayjay010101 (Apr 19, 2021)

Bones said:


> To be fair:
> "The Math" can only show a percentage chance of it being so - It does _not_ nor can show it as an absolute to say life is out there.
> Yes - There is a possibility of it, yet until something that's of concrete substance going beyond math appears, personally I can't really believe it myself.
> 
> ...


Without direct observation you can't say anything with certainty (and with quantum states, even observation can tamper with evidence to the point where there can be doubt as to the validity of your result. But that's not relevant in this discussion and is a whole can of worms anyhow), but we can say something is "probable to the point of being certain", which basically means if it's exceedingly unlikely something isn't the case, it probably is the case. Occam's razor and all that. The simplest and most likely result is most often the case; in this case the mathematics favor the existence of alien lifeforms somewhere (although at this stage in our progression as a species most likely unobservable) to the point where it's so probable it might as well be 100% (see 0.00000000001% chance that we're alone in just our galaxy, let alone the billions upon billions of other galaxies. Even if we assume only 1 in 100 billion planets can sustain life, that still means there's roughly one planet per galaxy, which means there would be billions upon billions of planets with life on them in our universe). 

It's unproven, and unobserved (thus far), but the chance of non-terrestrial lifeforms is ~100% in our universe. We might never come in contact with them, and they might not be intelligent to the point of being able to communicate, but the odds are so much in favor of there being life somewhere that it's just illogical to think otherwise.


----------



## R0H1T (Apr 19, 2021)

I'll just put it out here ~
















We're just so puny that to rule out lack of all "alien life" out there would be akin to a virus, when he's inside a host, thinking it's the only game in town!


----------



## xtreemchaos (Apr 19, 2021)

that clip from MiB sure do some it up bud.


----------



## KLiKzg (Apr 19, 2021)

Andy Shiekh said:


> There is a rather depressing thought that very soon after technological life can send radio signals it terminates itself with nuclear war; this would explain why we don't detect technological life.
> 
> There is another interesting argument that says that one is most likely to be born where the human population is the greatest (in time), which, if true, would mean that there are unlikely to be many humans in the future, and this would tally with the first argument.


There is that possibility, but so far I have not found a research like this one for Mars, about exo-planets. Maybe those are too far to make such claims?

But we do know, how to detect "atomic energy signatures". So question is: can we detect it? & if we can, why haven't we done it already?


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 19, 2021)

KLiKzg said:


> But we do know, how to detect "atomic energy signatures".


Because pretty much every star out there is an "atomic energy signature"


----------



## KLiKzg (Apr 19, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> Because pretty much every star out there is an "atomic energy signature"


Signature of atomic war with fission weapons, make different signatures in radiation of elements - then fussion powered stars.

Next time, read 1st - before posting.


----------



## Bones (Apr 19, 2021)

kayjay010101 said:


> 1: Without direct observation you can't say anything with certainty (and with quantum states, even observation can tamper with evidence to the point where there can be doubt as to the validity of your result.
> 
> 2: But that's not relevant in this discussion and is a whole can of worms anyhow), but we can say something is "probable to the point of being certain", which basically means if it's exceedingly unlikely something isn't the case, it probably is the case. Occam's razor and all that. The simplest and most likely result is most often the case; in this case the mathematics favor the existence of alien lifeforms somewhere (although at this stage in our progression as a species most likely unobservable) to the point where it's so probable it might as well be 100% (see 0.00000000001% chance that we're alone in just our galaxy, let alone the billions upon billions of other galaxies. Even if we assume only 1 in 100 billion planets can sustain life, that still means there's roughly one planet per galaxy, which means there would be billions upon billions of planets with life on them in our universe).
> 
> 3: It's unproven, and unobserved (thus far), but the chance of non-terrestrial lifeforms is ~100% in our universe. We might never come in contact with them, and they might not be intelligent to the point of being able to communicate, but the odds are so much in favor of there being life somewhere that it's just illogical to think otherwise.


I'll break down my response as follows:

1: Which goes back to my point - There is nothing that indicates in any way there is something aside from us out there.

2: You are correct about one thing here - _The worms_.

Probrably this morning I'm going out to grab an early morning bite but there are sooooo many variables between me (Personally) and me actually having it (The breakfast) in my hand, each variable either adding up to or against me having it in that way.

By it's definition even Occam's Razor isn't an absolute, it says "Most Likely" based on condition(s) of _established_ simplicity.

In the case of simplicity, it's a condition of all variables possible to be removed have been to simplify the information which, in turn will hopefully point to a specific thing or direction.....
However in this case, since we are still FAR from having all the data/evidence there is no way it can be broken down to such simplicity, at least we can't do it with the data we currently have to work with.
Occam's Razor can probrably answer an issue that's direct such as a "Yes" or "No" kind of thing but there are times and things you just cannot boil down to something so simple, aside from the final "Yes" or "No" answer in the end.

3: That's the point - Until _it's proven_ one cannot honestly say it as a certainty. Even if it seems logical to do, say or even believe one thing, how many times has the universe made just the opposite reality?

Used to be for example a Black Hole's gravity well was so powerful nothing; As in N.O.T.H.I.N.G. would or could ever escape it's gravity well and that was the thing we knew about them.... Or we thought we did.
Not too long ago lines of magnetic force were observed, researched and proven as fact to be emanating from them, generated by them and these were expanding and contracting in AND out.
Our knowledge was once again tripped up and that goes back to our knowledge being incomplete.

You can't rule out a variable if you don't know it even exists in the first place and logically (To me) I cannot and will not say it in such terms or assign a percentage value to it. Until we have something that's actual concrete evidence like an overloaded Vegas Casino sign pointing to it I'm not.
I can only say that's is possible...... But at the same time it's certainly not fact...
Yet.


----------



## xtreemchaos (Apr 19, 2021)

i wish i never came to this planet   to much tit for tat and point scoring for me.


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 19, 2021)

KLiKzg said:


> Signature of atomic war with fission weapons, make different signatures in radiation of elements - then fussion powered stars.
> 
> Next time, read 1st - before posting.


At such extreme distances, I am very doubtful you could tell any such difference.


----------



## Vayra86 (Apr 19, 2021)

These signals are a bit like 'new battery technology discovered'.

Its never true and it genuinely feels like they're just trying to keep things exciting for us.


----------



## Wirko (Apr 19, 2021)

xtreemchaos said:


> why would thay use radio signals ? just because we use them, it could be very primitive to some other life and thay have found something much better that dont bleed every time thay use it and then theres us yes humans we not nice we kill and eat everything all roads lead to war and the whole planet is set in a slow death dive to distruction and most dont give a shit. what self respecting life form from another world/s would come near us eh ?


(A part of) what we see as microwave background radiation may be their radio communication signals ... but the encryption keys are several terabits long.


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 19, 2021)

Vayra86 said:


> Its never true


Really?  You must be reading something we aren't.



Wirko said:


> (A part of) what we see as microwave background radiation may be their radio communication signals ... but the encryption keys are several terabits long.


Even that would probably register on a static band, which is what we look for.

Assuming of course, they use radio like we do.


----------



## oobymach (Apr 19, 2021)

Little grey ones live on the damn moon, they told Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong to get off and stay off the moon when we made first contact in the 60's with them. Buzz been trying for years to tell people the truth about it but nobody believes him.


----------

