FP trendJanuary 5, 2021 2:47:49 PM HE
Researchers at Penn State University are examining a signal that was detected by a radio telescope aimed at Proxima Centauri. It is the small neighboring star of the Milky Way and is part of the Alpha Centauri. The radio signal was originally picked up in April and May 2019. In an interaction with The New York Times, Sofia Sheikh, a Penn State graduate and lead author of the study, said the signal is a kind of technological signal, but the question is whether it is Earth technology or somewhere else.
Sheikh is part of a $ 100 million effort funded by Russian billionaire investor Yuri Milner to find alien radio waves. This is the first candidate for the Breakthrough Listen or BLC-1 project. According to an article by SET, this is just a candidate, not a confirmed sign and even everyone at Breakthrough Listen highlighted it, including CEO Pete Worden.
The sixty-four-meter radio telescope at the Parkes Observatory in Australia was used to detect potential Proxima Centauri signals.
The closest star system to Earth is the famous Alpha Centauri group. Located in the constellation Centauri (The Centaur), at a distance of 4.3 light years, this system consists of the binary formed by the stars Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, plus the faint red dwarf Alpha Centauri C also known as Proxima Centauri. Image credit: ESA / Hubble and NASA
He told the New York Times that it looks like the signal only appears in his data when they look at Proxima Centauri. Andrew Siemion, of the Berkeley SETI Research Center and a Breakthrough Listen researcher, added that his instincts tell him the signal will be of anthropogenic origin.
Proxima Centauri, which is a red dwarf star, is orbited by two known planets, one of which is in the “habitable zone” that could withstand Earth-like conditions.
In an interaction with Scientific American, Penn State University professor Jason Wright said that if such a signal is seen and does not come from the Earth’s surface, it is known that they have detected extraterrestrial technology.
Talking to Scientific American, Sheikh further said that it is the most exciting signal they have found in the Breakthrough Listen project because they have not had any jump so many times to their filters before.