We are not alone…
Scientists are excited about “peculiar radio signals” emitting from a star 11 light years away. The signals are emerging from a dwarf star known as Ross 128, according to scientists in Puerto Rico.
Rumors of alien life on a nearby star has gripped social media, despite the best efforts of astronomers to dispute such rumors.
“We realized that there were some very peculiar signals in the 10-minute dynamic spectrum that we obtained from Ross 128,” said a blog post by Abel Mendez, director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.
Mendez said the signal is not radio interference — they are really trying to contact earth.
“We believe that the signals are not local radio frequency interferences (RFI) since they are unique to Ross 128 and observations of other stars immediately before and after did not show anything similar,” Mendez said.
Mendez provided three possible explanations for the radio signals:
They could be emissions similar to solar flares.
They could be emissions from another object in the field of view of Ross 128.
Or they might be a burst from a high orbit satellite.
He said scientists using a different telescope array will try and observe the star for a second time on Saturday — when a final determination will be made about the signals.
“I have a Pina Colada ready to celebrate if the signals result to be astronomical in nature,” Mendez said.
Photos by Arctic-Images/ Getty Images
