The DI Cha star system shine through the centre of a ring of cascading dust in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Photo / Nasa
The DI Cha star system shine through the centre of a ring of cascading dust in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Photo / Nasa
This is odd. Therefore aliens? Two French-Canadian astronomers have spotted strange flashes of colour from a set of stars. They say it's an alien civilisation. Others say it's just a glitch.
The study argues that this pattern is unlikely to be explained by natural forces. Therefore it is evidence of an alien civilisation attempting to alert the surrounding universe to its existence.
"We find that the detected signals have exactly the shape of an ETI signal predicted in the previous publication and are therefore in agreement with this hypothesis," it reads.
"The fact that they are only found in a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral range centred near the spectral type of the sun is also in agreement with the ETI hypothesis."
The above composite shows the extent of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which has 3D mapped about one third of the sky. Photo / Sloan Digital Sky Survey
UNCONVINCED
Their excitement, however, has not been taken up by the rest of the astronomical community.
In fact, many express growing frustration at a spate of 'alien contact' reports being used to explain recent anomalous observations, including fast radio bursts and stuttering stars.
Mystery, they say, is the bread and butter of the astronomical business.
It's about learning the incredibly complex rules that govern the universe.
Not everything that is odd has to be alien.
In fact, nothing odd has ever turned out to be such.
Yet.
And this study raises several 'red flags' pointing towards human error.
Swinburne University astrophysicist Dr Alan Duffy says he is not impressed by the study.
"The researchers claim to see the same tiny pattern appearing hundreds of stars which is more likely to be the same mistake in their analysis not a sign that all aliens are communicating the same way," he says.
"A detection of alien life would be so extraordinary that to claim it requires extraordinary evidence and several teams and telescopes confirming it. This work doesn't even come close to being able to make that claim."
QUALITY CONTROL
It is just one study. The findings have not been replicated.
Also, the signals that were the subject of the search have been detected by just the one survey - a wide field survey designed to map millions of stars. Not analyse a few.
Specialist alien hunter for SETI (the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) Seth Shostak says he also is dubious about the conclusion.
"I am quite sceptical, in particular of the data processing that can take spectrally sampled data, and infer time variations. So I'd be a little careful," he told astronomy.com.
"The one in 10,000 objects with unusual spectra seen by Borra and Trottier are certainly worthy of additional study. However, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," Breakthrough Listen director Andrew Siemion wrote in a statement.
"(It must be) confirmed by independent groups using their own telescopes, and for all natural explanations to be exhausted before invoking extraterrestrial agents as an explanation. Careful work must be undertaken to determine false positive rates, to rule out natural and instrumental explanations, and most importantly, to confirm detections using two or more independent telescopes."
