. The new signals were detected by using an AI to analyse data that has already been gathered by the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. All the burst were produced during one hour, suggesting ‘that the source alternates between periods of quiescence and frenzied activity’. Scientists cannot yet identify the process which produces the short and sharp radio wave bursts, which means it is not possible to decide they were not made by aliens. The signals they spotted – fast radio bursts (FRBs) – are bright and quick pulses which were first discovered in 2007 and are believed to come from distant galaxies.
Green Bank radio telescope
Although it is not yet know what causes them, a form of alien transportation has been suggested so possibly they are the signatures of technology developed by extraterrestrial intelligent life. The FRBs were detected in data collected by the Green Bank Telescope, part of the US Radio Quiet Zone, where wireless communications signals are banned to prevent interference with the telescopes. The bursts are coming out of a galaxy three billion light years from Earth and appear to originate from a region called FRB 121102.
