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A mysterious radio signal from our closest stellar neighbor, Next Centauri, is being “carefully investigated” by a team of alien hunter astronomers from the Project Breakthrough Listen.
The signal, which appeared with only minor fluctuations in a narrow band of frequencies of around 980 megahertz – which corresponds to a region of the radio spectrum that normally lacks transmissions from satellites and artificial or human spacecraft – had already been received by the Australian radio telescope Parkes in April and May 2019, according to a report published by The Guardian.
The signal, according to the scientists, came from the direction of the star Proxima Centauri which is the closest neighbor of our sun in space.
Next b
Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years from the land (almost 40 trillion kilometers) and has two confirmed planets, a Jupiter-like gas giant and a rocky Earth-like world called Next b in the “habitable zone”, which is an area where liquid water could flow on the planet’s surface.
However, since Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, the habitable zone is very close to the star. This means that it is likely that the planet is blocked by the tides and exposed to intense radiation, making it little possible that any civilization could have formed, at least on the surface.
Third planet within the system?
The signal, which has not been attributed to any terrestrial or human-made sources near Earth, is likely to have a natural explanation nonetheless. Even so, alien hunter astronomers have been stunned by the mysterious signal.
Thus, the radio signal detected in the range of 980 megahertz, in addition to the changes in frequency detected by the telescope Parkes, are consistent with the motion of a planet. This suggests that it could be evidence of a third planet within the system, rather than signs of an alien civilization, something the researchers say would be “highly unlikely.”
Pete Worden, Director of Innovative initiatives, told The Guardian that the signals are likely interference from ground sources that we cannot yet explain. However, he said it was important to wait and see what the project scientists conclude by closely examining the signal.
The Wow!
The team says this is one of the most exciting radio signals since The Signal Woohoo! which led many to speculate that it originated from a distant alien civilization.
Wow! was a short-lived narrow-band radio signal picked up during a search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or Seti, by the Big Ear Radio Observatory in Ohio in 1977. The unusual signal, which gained its name after astronomer Jerry Ehman wrote “ Wow! ” Along with the data, it sparked a wave of excitement, though Ehman cautioned against drawing “vast conclusions from medium-length data.”
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