A signal thought to come from Proxima Centauri a while ago excited scientists. Now, however, it became clear that this signal was an echo from Earth, not from outer space. Committed to looking for signs of technology created by extraterrestrial intelligence, also known as techno-signatures, astronomers say that another signal looks like a false positive.
“Evidence shows that it was an interference from human technology, although we were not able to identify the specific source of the signal,” said Sofia Sheikh from the Breakthrough Listen team.
The Breakthrough Listen initiative helps support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and in 2020 team members using the Parkes telescope in Australia reported receiving an interesting signal when they pointed the telescope at Proxima Centauri, the closest known planet beyond our solar system.
However, Andrew Siemion of the University of California, Berkeley, who led Listen’s science team, said Sheikh said after doing a deeper analysis of the signal, it started to look a lot less alien. “Our analysis shows that it’s very unlikely that it really came from a transmitter in Proxima Centauri. But it was undoubtedly one of the most intriguing signals we’ve seen to date,” says Siemion.
As a result, it was understood that the signal found after decades of research did not come from extraterrestrial beings. Pete Worden, Executive Director of Breakthrough Initiatives, stated that this development has helped further fine-tune the process of filtering out false positives: “Although we were unable to find a true techno signature, we are increasingly confident that we have the tools to detect and verify such signatures. It made us.”
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