The mysterious double burst radio signals picked up by the Parkes radio telescope in Australia recently could be coming from intelligent alien life, say thousands of extraterrestrial enthusiasts and some serious scientists from around the world.
This is not the first time rare and mysterious signals have been detected. In the past there have been single bursts – this time there was a double burst.
The new FRBs (fast radio bursts) got everybody excited after scientists threw their arms up and said they had “no idea what is going on”.
One of the team members who received the mysterious signals, Emily Petroff, said on Twitter that they were all baffled. (Image: twitter.com)
Two-component FRB is remarkable
They pointed out that most proposed models to explain the presence of FRBs use a single high energy event such as the merging of neutron stars – explaining a two-component FRB is beyond our current scientific knowledge.
Scientists have been left mystified by the ‘double burst’ that has several wondering whether a faraway, super-advanced alien civilization could have sent them.
Emily Petroff, a PhD student in astrophysics at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, one of the team members who discovered the signals, suggests the origin may be more remarkable than anything recorded before.
Ms. Petroff tweeted:
“We have no idea what’s going on, but we know it’s definitely something cool.”
Ms. Petroff also tweeted an image of the recording of the five radio bursts. (Image: twitter.com)
What are Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)?
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are high energy astrophysical phenomena manifested as transient radio pulses that last for just a few milliseconds.
Nobody knows what the origin of FRBs is. They are generally believed to be extragalactic due to the abnormally high amount of pulse dispersion observed. They could, however, come from nearby stars.
Scientists have not ruled out the possibility that they might originate from extraterrestrial intelligent beings.
Video – Ms. Petroff talks about FRBs
In this interview filmed nine months ago, Ms. Petroff talks about fast radio bursts.