The aliens are like buses, you spend centuries waiting for one and then 234 come together at the same time. Or at least that suggests two astronomers from the University of Laval, Quebec. Ermanno Lees and his graduate student Eric Trottier analyzed more than 2.5 million of stars and galaxies by pulses of light emitted at regular intervals and discovered in 234 similar stars in size to our sun.
The team believes that alien civilizations are behind these signs. The researchers analyzed the Fourier transform (FT) of the light spectrum. The FT is a mathematical tool that allows us to find out where the components of a signal come from. If the light is a milkshake, using the FT you get the recipe.
The FT analysis found periodic modular components that, according to scientists, are caused by the super fast light pulses (less than a second trillionth) generated by Extraterrestrial Intelligence (TSI). In the article, available in the publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, they discard all other explanations, such as instrumental effects, rotation of molecules, rapid stellar pulsations and peculiar chemistry.
"We found that the signals detected are exactly the form of a TSI signal provided in the previous publication and therefore agree with that hypothesis," the researchers wrote in the article.
"The fact that they are found only in a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral strip, centered close to the spectral type of the sun, is also according to the hypothesis of the TSI."
These super pulses will have to be generated by incredibly powerful lasers, such as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Interestingly, in previous publications, Ermanno Lees stated that this area of astronomy is the least explored, which begs the question as to why these aliens would eventually decide to communicate in a very complicated and consumerized way of energy. That's really interesting.
The researchers admit that while they believe that aliens are the most likely explanation, it still needs to be confirmed. The Breakthrough Listen project, supported by Stephen Hawking, will conduct accompanying observations of these 234 stars.
But the UC Berkeley team, where the scientific program of the project is based, invites people to be skeptical.
"The one in 10,000 objects with unusual spectra seen by Lees and Trottier is certainly worthy of further study. However, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. It is too early to unequivocally attribute these supposed signs to the activities of extraterrestrial civilizations, "said the Breakthrough Listen team in a statement.