Astronomers have encountered several radio signals that appear to be produced by intelligent aliens. By carefully analyzing them, it was found that they had a natural source. Now, thanks to a new algorithm trained by artificial intelligence, 8 signals of great interest have been captured. The discovery was made by experts, led by Peter Ma of the University of Toronto, who were using the algorithm to observe 820 stars in an area of space previously thought to be devoid of any possible extraterrestrial activity.
Their work, published in Nature Astronomy, was carried out in collaboration with SETI (the private scientific organization whose goal is to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life through international research programs for possible signals produced by intelligent aliens), the Breakthrough Listen project and other research institutions in the field of radio astronomy research to find extraterrestrial messages.
Steve Croft, one of the leaders of the Green Bank Telescope’s Breakthrough Listen project, explained: “The main problem is to look through the haystack of stars and radio signals around us to find the needle that might be a transmission from an alien world. Unfortunately, the vast majority of signals received by our telescopes come from our own technology, GPS satellites, cell phones, and the like. Peter Ma’s algorithm provides a more effective way to filter this.”
“In total, we searched 150 terabytes of data collected from 820 nearby stars. This is the same dataset studied in 2017 with classical techniques. At that time we concluded that there were no interesting signals. We are now taking this search effort to a million stars, thanks to the MeerKAT telescope,” Croft said.
These eight signals that appear to come from the direction of five stars in a space containing 820 stars, which are located between 30 and 90 light years away, have not been repeated. This does not allow us to say with absolute certainty that they are intelligent signals.
Astronomers need to listen to them again to rule out 100 percent that it is not interference on Earth, but it shows how vital the new algorithm is to hunting alien civilizations.