Scientists have finally provided an answer regarding the signal that stirred the astronomical community in 2019 from the Proxima Centauri star system, which is home to a planet believed to potentially host life.
According to Space, this signal, known as “BLC1”, is a narrowband signal near 982 MHz, detected by the Breakthrough Listen project utilizing the Parkes Radio Telescope “Murriyang” from CSIRO (Australia). BLC1 was initially thought to match the technical characteristics of an extraterrestrial civilization.
Graphic depiction of Proxima Centauri with a parent star and a potentially Earth-like planet – (Image: Lorenzo Santinelli)
However, a research team led by Dr. Yuri Milner, the founder of the Breakthrough Listen project, has conducted a more thorough analysis of the signal and declared that it is definitely not a signal from extraterrestrial life as we had hoped.
“Surprisingly,” the publication in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy even confirmed that this anticipated signal originated from Earth, inadvertently interfering with the observation system.
This is also why the signal seemed to exist only in the space between Earth and Proxima Centauri and disappeared when the telescope pointed towards regions of space beyond Proxima Centauri. By cross-referencing more data, the likelihood that this was merely noise from human technology was established. They even found dozens of cases of radio interference with similar patterns.
Nevertheless, according to Sci-News, this does not mean astronomers should give up on Proxima Centauri. This star system has been discovered to have a planet named Proxima Centauri b orbiting its parent star, which may have a temperate climate and conditions suitable for life similar to Earth.
With a distance of only 4.2 light-years, the potential for research to find direct evidence of life is within reach of projects being funded by space agencies around the world, such as the upcoming James Webb Telescope from NASA.
