(WWJ) For some, it's their worst nightmare -- for others, a dream fulfilled.
Radio signals have been detected from deep in outer space. They're being described as "fast radio bursts." Recorded 13 times, they're originating from 1.5 billion light years away from Earth.
The signal was detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), a radio telescope designed and built by Canadian scientists.
So, is this proof of extraterrestrial life? Maybe. And maybe not.
The BBC reports that there are a number of theories about what could be causing the bursts.
"They include a neutron star with a very strong magnetic field that is spinning very rapidly, two neutron stars merging together, and, among a minority of observers, some form of alien spaceship," their report says.
Of course, the most intriguing theory involves confirmation of life beyond Earth. Interestingly, some the signals follow a repeating pattern, per Science News, so they don't appear to be random in nature.
“It’s the wild, wild west out there,” Tendulkar says. “We have tantalizing clues, but it’s hard to make definitive conclusions,”astronomer Shriharsh Tendulkar of McGill University in Montreal, a member of the CHIME team, told Science News.
The findings were presented earlier this week at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting and published in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature.