[troutman]

Aliens at Proxima Centauri? A New Radio Signal Raises the Question

https://www.planetary.org/articles/a...SRZrtIDl9cVXsE

Scientists studying archival data collected by the Parkes radio telescope in Australia say they have found a radio signal that came from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth. Proxima Centauri has at least one planet that may be habitable to life as we know it. There is a slim chance that the signal came from extraterrestrial beings, though other explanations are far more likely.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and no one—including the astronomers analyzing the data—are claiming they’ve found aliens. A paper analyzing the findings is not expected to be published until early 2021, so there’s a lot we don’t know.

The signal

The signal was found by Breakthrough Listen, a privately funded effort to search for signals from intelligent beings.

• Breakthrough Listen scientists recorded the signal while monitoring Proxima Centauri for flares to understand how they might affect conditions on the star’s planets.
• The radio signal appeared in multiple observations of Proxima Centauri taken by Parkes in April and May 2020. The signal wasn’t noticed until later.
• 
  Why the signal could be aliens
• The signal frequency, 982 megahertz, is not typically used by spacecraft.
• The signal reappeared after the telescope looked at another part of the sky and then turned back to Proxima Centauri as part of a calibration procedure to check for interference from local sources, such as microwave ovens.
• There is no known natural astronomical phenomenon that would generate such a tight-band radio signal at 982 megahertz.