The truth is still out there - another 'alien' signal turns out to be interference

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-10-26 02:00

Australia; International; NSW; QLD; WA

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Promising radio signals thought to be evidence of extraterrestrial life have turned out to be nothing more than human interference, according to two Aussie and international research papers, which investigated the signals coming from the next-closest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri. The radio signals, known as blc1, were detected by the Parkes 'Murriyang' radio telescope in 2019 and researchers involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) were interested in finding out if the strange signals could be evidence of alien technology known as a 'technosignature'. When first detected, the signals seemed not to have an earth-bound origin and therefore must be extraterrestrial, but in-depth analysis revealed it was not 'aliens' and instead another case of 'human-generated interference'.