It is extremely unlikely that the regular and mysterious signals coming from deep space, the so-called fast radio bursts (Fast radio burst, Frb), which have long been the subject of extravagant hypotheses, are the work of alien civilizations. Seth Shostak, an astronomer from the Institute of the Seti (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) program, dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, is convinced of this.
Map of fast radio flashes intercepted so far (source: NRAO Outreach / Vimeo)
"One of the problems of the alien hypothesis is the great variety of distances of origin of fast radio signals, some originating billions of light years away, others hundreds of millions of light years away," notes Shostak. Before pulling Et into the field there are also many other valid theories, with dozens of models that describe these phenomena referring to extreme astrophysical contexts and high energy sources. Among the main suspects are neutron stars, that is what remains of exploded stars, cosmic objects so dense that a teaspoon of their matter on Earth would weigh a billion tons, almost as much as 170 million elephants.
Representation of a fast radio flash picked up by the Parkes radio telescope in Australia (source: Swinburne Astronomy Productions)
Among the most enigmatic phenomena in the universe, fast radio flashes are intense, very short pulses. lasting a few thousandths of a second and come from galaxies billions of light years away. Astrophysicists believe that an average of 5,000 fast radio flashes per day are emitted in the universe. The closest ever recorded was identified as coming from a galaxy similar to the Milky Way, about half a billion light years away. It is the fifth sign of its kind whose origin is identified exactly, out of hundreds observed so far. And all are related to non-alien origins.
Artistic representation of a fast radio flash. (source: Danielle Futselaar, artsource.nl)
