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Thanks to artificial intelligence, unusual and "mysterious" radio explosions have been detected at 3 billion light-years. (Credit: REUTERS / NASA / Document via Reuters)
E.T. may have tried to "call home", but new evidence suggests that he could now try to reach us.
Through an artificial intelligence program in search of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), it has been detected 3 billion light years away from unusual and mysterious radio bleeding.
SETI researchers used an automatic learning algorithm to uncover 72 previously unidentified "fast radio bursts" (FRBs). The FRBs come from the FRB 121102 galaxy. When combined with the 21 FRBs previously found on August 26, 2017, the total now reaches the 93 new FRBs discovered.
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"Not all of the findings come from new observations," said Pete Worden, Executive Director of Breakthrough Initiatives, a SETI project, in a statement. "In this case, it was an intelligent and original reflection applied to an existing data set. He advanced our knowledge of one of the most enticing mysteries of astronomy. "
"This work is only the beginning of using these powerful methods to detect radio transients," Gerry Zhang said in his release. "We hope our success will inspire other serious efforts to apply machine learning to radio astronomy."
We still do not know what causes the FRB, SETI describing their source and mechanism as "mysterious". Theories include "highly magnetized neutron stars, dynamited by gas flows near a supermassive black hole, suggesting that the bursting properties correspond to the signatures of technologies developed by an advanced civilization".
What makes FRBs from FRB 121102 interesting is that they are usually one-off events. However, FRB 121102 has been exceptionally active since its discovery in 2012, researchers calling it a "repeater".
The researchers used the Breakthrough Listen scientific program to scan 400 TB of data and find the 21 bursts, all observed in one hour, "suggesting that the source alternates between periods of rest and frenzied activity."
History of the FRB
The frequency of the FRB is unknown.
The FRBs, first discovered in 2007, are relatively new to astronomers and their origins are mysterious. According to ScienceAlert, some of them can generate as much energy as 500 million suns in milliseconds.
Last month, a FRB that hit the Earth was nearly 200 megahertz lower than any other radio hit ever detected.
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The origin of the FRB discovered at the end of July could be due to a number of events, such as the evaporation of black holes and the appearance of neutron stars , according to Nature.
However, astronomers, including those at Harvard, have also stated that they can not exclude that FRBs can come from advanced civilizations deep in space.
If the truth is really there, it could be just 3 billion light-years away from us.
Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia
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