Scientists investigate radio beam from nearby Star Proxima Centauri. Looking for Aliens.
- 3 years ago
Scientists investigate radio beam from nearby star. Looking for Aliens.
Tantalising ‘signal’ appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun.
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star with a mass about an eighth of the Sun's mass ( M ☉), and average density about 33 times that of the Sun.
The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in April and May 2019. Scientists have yet to identify it, whether it is a ground-based equipment or a passing satellite.
But the direction of the narrow beam, around 980MHz, and an apparent shift in its frequency said to be consistent with the movement of a planet have added to the tantalising nature of the finding.
Scientists are now preparing a paper on the beam, named BLC1, for Breakthrough Listen, the project to search for evidence of life in space.
The beam that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star 4.2 light years from Earth, has not been spotted since the initial observation.
At least two planets are known to orbit the star. One is a gas giant and the other is believed to be a rocky world about 17% more massive than Earth.
Known as Proxima b, the planet circles its star every 11 days and lies in the so-called “habitable zone”, where the temperature is right for water to flow and pool.
Pete Worden, the former director of Nasa’s Ames Research Center in California and executive director of the Breakthrough Initiatives, said it was important to wait and see what the project’s scientists concluded: “The Breakthrough Listen team has detected several unusual signals and is carefully investigating. These signals are likely interference that we cannot yet fully explain. Further analysis is currently being undertaken.”
Tantalising ‘signal’ appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun.
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star with a mass about an eighth of the Sun's mass ( M ☉), and average density about 33 times that of the Sun.
The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in April and May 2019. Scientists have yet to identify it, whether it is a ground-based equipment or a passing satellite.
But the direction of the narrow beam, around 980MHz, and an apparent shift in its frequency said to be consistent with the movement of a planet have added to the tantalising nature of the finding.
Scientists are now preparing a paper on the beam, named BLC1, for Breakthrough Listen, the project to search for evidence of life in space.
The beam that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star 4.2 light years from Earth, has not been spotted since the initial observation.
At least two planets are known to orbit the star. One is a gas giant and the other is believed to be a rocky world about 17% more massive than Earth.
Known as Proxima b, the planet circles its star every 11 days and lies in the so-called “habitable zone”, where the temperature is right for water to flow and pool.
Pete Worden, the former director of Nasa’s Ames Research Center in California and executive director of the Breakthrough Initiatives, said it was important to wait and see what the project’s scientists concluded: “The Breakthrough Listen team has detected several unusual signals and is carefully investigating. These signals are likely interference that we cannot yet fully explain. Further analysis is currently being undertaken.”