Extraterrestrial civilizations are like buses: you wait for a very long time for information about at least one, and then 234 appear at the same time. Or at least that's what two astronomers at Leval University in Quebec say.
Observation results
Ermanno Borra and his graduate student Eric Trottier analyzed over 2.5 million pulses of light emitted by stars and galaxies, trying to detect those that appear at regular intervals. Such impulses were characteristic of 234 stars, which are approximately the same size as our Sun. Scientists believe that aliens are behind these signals.
The researchers looked at the Fourier transform of the light spectrum (FT). It is a mathematical tool that allows you to determine where the signal components come from. When compared to a cocktail, FT can determine its recipe.
FT analysis has revealed periodic modulated components that scientists believe are caused by superfast light pulses generated by extraterrestrial intelligence. Scientists in their article discard all other explanations, such as instrumental effects, molecular rotation, fast stellar pulsations and peculiar chemistry.
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Conclusions of scientists
In their article, the researchers write that the signals they detected have the same shape as those that can be sent by extraterrestrial intelligence. The fact that they can only be found in a very small fraction of stars and within a narrow spectral region centered near the spectral type of the Sun is also consistent with the extraterrestrial intelligence hypothesis.
Such ultrafast pulses can only be generated by incredibly powerful lasers such as those at Livermore National Laboratory. Interestingly, in previous publications, Borra stated that this area of astronomy is the least studied, which raises the question of why these hypothetical civilizations decided to communicate in such a complex and energy-intensive way.
The researchers admit that while they believe the ETC version is the most likely explanation, this has yet to be confirmed.
The reaction of the scientific world
The project, founded by Stephen Hawking, is about to follow up on these 234 stars, but a team at the University of Berkeley, where the science program is based, is very skeptical about the results.
One of the 10,000 objects with an unusual spectrum observed by Borra and Trottier is certainly worthy of further study. Nonetheless, extraordinary claims require the same evidence. It is too early to attribute these hypothetical signals to the activities of extraterrestrial civilizations, the scientists note in a statement.
Anna Pismenna
