Searching the deep space: The Robert C Byrd Green Bank telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, part of the Listening Project, in Green Bank, West Virginia, US. Photograph: Jim West/REX/Shutterstock

 

The Breakthrough Listen project, an initiative to find signs of intelligent life in the universe, detected 15 powerful, repeated radio pulses originating from a dwarf galaxy 3 billion light years away from Earth.

About two dozen similar signals have been detected in the past, but only one source has been observed to repeat. The source, named FRB 121102, was first observed in 2012. Now 15 more signals were detected coming from the same source at a higher frequency than the previous signals.

Some astrophysicists have proposed that the signals could be emanating from black holes or rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields. Another possibility could be that they come from an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

The high resolution data obtained by the Listen instrument will allow scientists to perform a more detailed analysis of the mysterious events. “Whether or not these signals turn out to be signatures of extraterrestrial technology, the Breakthrough Listen project, is helping to push the frontiers of a new and rapidly growing area of our understanding of the universe’, Andrew Siemion, director of the project, said.

 

Source: The Guardian