Bad news about 'alien signal' from 4.2 light years from Earth

Scientists have just given the final answer to the signal that stirred astronomers in 2019 from the Proxima Centauri star system, which has a planet thought to be habitable.

According to Space, it is a signal called "BLC1 " , a narrowband signal near 982 MHz, detected by the Breakthrough Listen project carried out on the Parkes "Murriyang" radio telescope of CISRO (Australia). BLC1 was once thought to match the specifications of an alien civilization.

Graphic image depicting Proxima Centauri with a parent star and a planet that could be very similar to Earth - (Image: Lorenzo Santinelli)

Recently, however, a research team led by Breakthrough Listen project founder Dr. Yuri Milner, has analyzed the signal more thoroughly and stated that it is definitely not a signal from aliens like us. expectation.

More "backwards" , the article published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy even confirmed that this signal everyone was expecting came from the Earth people themselves, inadvertently disturbing the observation system.

That's also why the signal seems to exist only in the space from Earth to Proxima Centauri and disappears when the telescope is pointed out into space beyond Proxima Centauri. Contrasting more data, the possibility that it is just interference caused by human technology is established. They even found dozens more cases of radio interference with similar patterns.

However, according to Sci-News , that's no reason for astronomers to give up on Proxima Centauri either. This star system has been found to have a planet called Proxima Centauri b orbiting its parent star, which may have a temperate climate and similar living conditions to Earth.

At just 4.2 light-years away, the research ability to find direct evidence of life is within reach of projects being funded by space agencies around the world, such as the telescope. NASA's upcoming James Webb.