This year we are not missing anything. A strange signal has been detected coming from a nearby star, Proxima Centauri.
Dubbed the “Wow 2020 Signal,” the signal from Proxima Centauri (one of the three stars that make up the Alpha Centauri system) was detected as part of the Breakthrough Listen project working on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Today the wow signal of the new millennium gentlemen. The mysterious alien signal from another sun, from other planets. But are we sure?
In a rather unusual circumstance, news of the detection from Proxima Centauri appears to have leaked to the British newspaper The Guardian by one of the scientists involved before the results were officially published.
This is not the way science usually operates, as it means that the data is not yet available in newspapers for others to see.
An extraterrestrial signal?
The signal detected by Proxima Centauri is really interesting. Although experts have no explanation for these extraterrestrial signals, they are skeptical that it is direct evidence of intelligent life. The SETI Institute, one of the largest organizations involved in SETI, warned in a post on his blog that this alien message could simply be a mistake, even if not explainable at the moment. “It could just be us, led astray by our own technology.”
As reported by the Guardian, alien messages from Proxima Centauri were detected between April and May in a 30-hour period of observations using the Parkes telescope in Australia. The radio emission from space was around 980 MHz and appeared to change in frequency along with the movement of one of the planets in the system.
But experts have raised doubts about the likelihood of the signal being sent from extraterrestrials. No messages (or messages) from aliens today, then?
Signal from Proxima Centauri: more questions than answers
“The idea of a technologically advanced civilization living around our closest stellar neighbor would be truly extraordinary. But at the moment, with these signals from space we are left with more questions than answers." To say it is Franck Marchis, senior astronomer at SETI Institute and Chief Scientific Officer at Unistellar.
To begin with, some doubts about these extraterrestrial messages also come to Marchis. How come the signals from space from Proxima Centauri and Alpha Centauri were only detected once in 30 hours in April and May? Why didn't observers warn the scientific community to confirm the signal after its discovery?
Marchis went on to emphasize how unlikely it is that an intelligent civilization could be born so close to us: “There are 300 million exoplanets that could be habitable in our galaxy, which is 200.000 light-years in diameter. It would be a truly incredible coincidence that two civilizations (ours and the one on Proxima Centauri bc) used the same technology at the same time to send each other an extraterrestrial message."
While I'm excited about the idea of receiving messages from space, it really seems highly unlikely. I also doubt that this wow message, this signal from space comes from extraterrestrial civilizations.
