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Breakthrough Listen uses radio telescopes like the Parkes Telescope in Australia or the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. These instruments routinely record what look like signals from space but are actually due to local interference from Earth. In April and May 2019, the team captured something different: a narrow beam transmission of around 980 MHz that lasted for 30 hours. The signal, dubbed BLC1, also appeared to move in such a way that it could have come from a planet orbiting the star.
The team is still preparing an article for the scientific community to review, but there are a few reasons to be excited here. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our solar system, and in 2016 researchers announced the discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting the habitable zone. Astronomers later spotted a second larger planet further into the solar system. So, it is theoretically possible that there is life on any of these planets, especially that of the habitable zone.
The Green Bank Telescope used by Breakthrough Listen.
However, it is still too early to begin celebrating the discovery of alien life. BLC1 is a candidate signal that needs to be analyzed, and if we’re realistic, intelligent extraterrestrials are unlikely to live in the next solar system. The Milky Way galaxy has around 300 million exoplanets and is almost 14 billion years old. Finding another intelligent species existing with us a few light years away would be extremely unlikely. If these aliens are also using radio frequency technology at the same time as us, it is an even greater coincidence.
This is not the first signal that could be interpreted as having artificial origins. The famous “Wow” signal detected in 1977 by SETI researchers is another example. This one didn’t work, but BLC1 could be the first serious contender for decades. If not, well, there are a lot more stars out there. The only way to find them is to keep looking.
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