‘Extragalactic’ radio waves a mystery, scientists say alien life forms could be responsible
SCIENTISTS are investigating unexplainable bursts of radio waves that could be messages from alien life forms, after an Australian team stumbled upon the phenomenon.
Ten of the bizarre flashes have been picked up by radio telescope over the past 15 years, displaying a mathematical pattern that has bamboozled experts, in a real-life version of the 1997 sci-fi film Contact.
Lasting just a few milliseconds, the radio bursts erupt with about as much energy as the sun releases in a month, New Scientist reports.
It all started last year at the CSIRO’s Parkes Telescope in central-west New South Wales, which last year picked up a radio burst in real-time, a world first that sparked a hunt through data that unearthed nine similar events.