Someone or something is reaching out to us from the depths of interstellar space. Could it possibly be aliens? Or perhaps it’s something even more enigmatic? Recently, researchers stumbled upon a baffling signal that has left them puzzled. What’s truly remarkable is that this signal has been reaching us for the past three decades, completely unbeknownst to anyone until now. The question looms: who or what is the originator of this signal? Is it plausible that we may soon make contact with an extragalactic civilization, as some scientists speculate? Moreover, what ramifications would such a revelation hold for humanity? The prospect of discovering that we are not alone in the universe is a profound one, stirring up a myriad of questions about our place in the cosmos and our future as a species. Get ready to discover this and more. Since the invention of the first working radio telescope back in 1937 by American amateur astronomer Grote Reber, we’ve been listening for sounds coming from the cosmos in hopes of finding a radio signal that would tell us we’re not alone. With his homemade telescope, Reber mapped the radio structure of the Milky Way Galaxy, discov ered bright sources of radio waves outside the galaxy, and made important observations that would later help physicists discover non-thermal radiation. That said, it’s helpful to understand radio waves before we start talking about signals from space. Radio waves, just like light waves, are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and all electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light, which is a blistering 186,282 miles per second! [300,000,000 meters per second] You’re all famil iar with SETI or the ‘search for extraterrestrial intelligence’ which has been scanning space for radio signals that might come from some kind of advanced civilization like ours. And we’ve actually received some mysterious radio signals. The Wow! signal was a mysterious and unexplained radio signal detected from outer space on August 15, 1977. It is one of the most famous and puzzling radio signals ever received by SETI. The signal was detected by the Big Ear Radio Telescope at Ohio State University’s Perkins Observatory, which was used for SETI research at the time. The signal was discovered by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman, an astronomer working on the SETI project at the time. While analyzing data from the Big Ear telescope, he came across a remarkably strong and narrowband radio signal that lasted for exactly 72 seconds. The signal was so unusual that Ehman circled the data on the computer printout and wrote “Wow!” in red ink, giving the signal its famous name. So why did Ehman call this the Wow! signal? The reason was because the signal was received at a frequency of 1420.4 MHz, which is within the hydrogen line, a frequency that many scientists consider a potential channel for communication by extraterrestrial civilizations. The hydrogen line in radio astronomy is a special wavelength of radio waves that comes from hydrogen gas in space. When hydrogen atoms in space give off energy, they emit radio waves at a very specific frequency. This frequency is like a unique “fingerprint” for hydrogen, and it’s around 1420 megahertz. For 40 years the narrowband radio signal stumped astronomers. But in 2017, a Professor Antonio Paris, of St Petersburg College claimed that the signal was created by a pair of comets named 266P/Christensen and 335P/Gibbs. Both of these comets have clouds of hydrogen gas millions of miles surrounding them. However, some astronomers, including Ehman, believe that Paris is wrong about the comet exp lanation. The reason is that the signal did not repeat, and that it appeared for only a short time. The Big Ear telescope had two ‘feed horns’ which both provide a different field of view for the radio telescope.That said, if it was a comet, Ehman would have seen the source come through twice, each lasting 72 seconds within a minute and a half, and that didn’t happen. It should be noted that Ehman isn’t convinced it’s aliens either. The Wow signal is still the strongest signal that we’ve ever received, and we may not ever know who or what gave off the signal. It is intriguing, but it’s not the only strange and bizarre signal from space. There’s a signal coming right from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy that’s got astronomers stumped. A research team was going through data from Australia’s ASKAP radio telescope in 2020. 2 million objects were found to be sending out signals, and the researchers were classifying each one. The computer was able to identify m ost of the objects as stars, and even picked out the tell-tale signs of a rapidly rotating dead star; called a pulsar. However, one object in the center of the Milky Way stumped not only the researchers, but the computer as well couldn’t figure it out either. This unknown object emitted powerful radio waves in 2020 sending out six signals in nine months. The irregular pattern and polarized radio emissions weren’t like anything researchers have seen before. But stranger than the irre gular patterns was the fact that the object could not be seen in X-ray visible, or infrared light. And, to top it all off, the radio signal mysteriously disappeared despite listening for months with two different radio telescopes. But that’s not all, a year later, the strange radio signal reappeared after it was detected, and within a day, it vanished again. One thing is certain; this is no ordinary dead star, or like any of the other 2 million objects in the research team’s survey. So what could it be? Researchers believe this rare discovery could belong to a category of signals coming from the Milky Way known as “galactic center radio transients”, or GCRTs. Only three other objects are in this category, it took 10 years to find them, and scientists are still trying to figure out what they are. But before we jump to conclusions about the signals possibly coming from aliens, it is important to remember that technological signals would cover a much narrower ra nge of frequencies, like our broadcast radios do. It’s quite possible that the GCRTs are neutron stars, pulsars that are orbiting each other so that a radio signal from one star eclipses another, or it simply could be dying pulsars running out of energy while emitting irregular radio gasps. A new telescope, named the Square Kilometer Array, might be able to figure out this mystery. The array is being built in Australia and South Africa and should be completed in 2028. We may think w e haven’t heard anything yet, that there is no concrete evidence of a signal from an advanced civilization, but it doesn’t mean we’re not getting any signals from space. In fact, we might just be listening to a signal from an advanced civilization…right now. Scientists have recently discovered an object that has been sending radio signals towards Earth since at least 1988… but we didn’t know about it until now. For the last 35 years, strange blasts of energy from an object 15,000 lig ht years away have been hitting the Earth in varying levels of brightness, and have occurred like clockwork approximately every 20 minutes, and sometimes lasting for five minutes. Scientists originally thought the strange radio signals could be coming from a magnetar. Magnetars have exceptionally strong magnetic fields. In fact, they possess the most powerful magnetic fields known in the universe, often measured at a trillion times stronger than Earth’s field. To put that into pers pective, a magnetar located halfway to the Moon could strip the information from a credit card here on Earth. Due to the intense magnetic fields, the crust of a magnetar can crack, producing what are known as “starquakes.” These events release a tremendous amount of energy, sometimes producing powerful bursts of X-rays and gamma rays that we can detect from Earth. So could it be a signal from an alien civilization trying to reach us? It may be alluring to consider extraterrestrial intelligence as a potential origin of the signal. This was indeed the case when the initial pulsar was detected, leading astrophysicists to playfully dub it “LGM 1” or “Little Green Men 1,” until further observations led them to dismiss this possibility. The most likely culprit, researchers say, is pulsars, or neutron stars that blink and rotate like lighthouses emitting energetic beams as they rotate toward and away from Earth. But pulsars slow down as time passes, their pulses grow recently, all known magnetars released energy at intervals ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes. That’s far more often than the 22-minute intervals that this object emits radio waves. Until technology improves, we won’t know for sure what this signal is. With that in mind, could it be possible that we might get a radio signal from a distant civilization? It is theoretically possible for us to receive a radio signal from a distant civilization. But there are several factors we n on these bands. Another important thing is signal strength: For a signal to be detectable over interstellar distances, it would either need to be incredibly powerful, or targeted directly at our solar system. Broad-beamed transmissions diminish in strength according to the inverse square law, meaning they become weaker very quickly over vast distances. For instance, if we put a smartphone on the moon, it would end up being one of the brightest radio sources in the sky. Timing is als thanks to sending out noisy signals in space are somewhat far-fetched. This galactic map shows just how far radio signals have traveled from Earth. That tiny blue dot you can barely see is 200 light years in diameter. That’s not saying that those radio signals won’t ever reach some civilization out there…it’s quite possible. However, we again run into the problem of timing and timescales. Because of the finite speed of light, when you look up into the night sky at the stars, you’r t an extraterrestrial civilization 65 million light years away from us could see the Earth. They would be seeing planet Earth during the time of the Dinosaurs. That said, a far away civilization would hear nothing. At the same time, if an alien civilization did hear radio signals coming from our planet, we might be long gone before anyone had a chance to make it here…that is unless an extraterrestrial civilization was able to bend space at time at will using wormholes. That said, we’ve sent out may have reached far-off stars by now. And apparently, if those stars happen to be home to extraterrestrial life that could respond to our signals, some astronomers believe we could be hearing back from them as early as 2029. When you think about all the ways you could make contact with another planet far, far away, radio signals might not be the best thing for an intelligent civilization to send out. Because you wouldn’t know who you were sending this signal out to. derstanding of science and technology. If we exclude radio waves, several other potential methods emerge by which an interstellar civilization might attempt to contact us, based on a combination of current scientific understanding and speculative concepts: Optical Signals: Lasers or other powerful sources of light can send focused and coherent optical signals across interstellar distances. Such a beam, especially if it were pulsed in a specific pattern, could indicate intentional utrinos pass through most matter without interaction, they could theoretically be used to send messages across vast distances.
Though the  technology required to modulate and detect neutrino signals would be quite advanced. Gravitational Waves: With our newfound ability to detect gravitational waves, it’s conceivable  that a highly advanced civilization might use them for communication. They would need  the capability to produce controlled events that generate detectable gravitational trange signals coming from stars. It certainly could be one way to communicate. Megastructures: Building large structures  that have detectable effects on their local environment, like Dyson spheres,  could serve both a functional purpose for the civilization and act as a beacon to others. There’s speculation around concepts like quantum entanglement for faster-than-light communication,  though current understanding suggests it’s not possible. And then there are the consequences of meet that we are not alone in the universe could promote a sense of global  unity. The shared realization of our common humanity might lead to greater cooperation  among nations and reduced conflicts. We might not know if the aliens we just made  contact with would open a wormhole and suddenly appear on our cosmic doorstep. Earth might need to enhance its defenses and security measures in case of hostile  or unintended interactions with advanced alien civilizations. Depending on the intenti igious and philosophical beliefs. Some religious  doctrines might need to be reinterpreted or adapted to incorporate the existence  of extraterrestrial life. Religion might just be erased from existence entirely. However, on the other hand, contact with aliens could benefit the human race,  assuming the alien civilization would be willing to share their technology. The  exchange of knowledge and technology between Earth and alien civilizations could lead to  rapid advancements in scie tuned here for more exciting discoveries on our planet and the universe.