Latest news with #ActaAstronautica
Asharq Al-Awsat
21-05-2025
- Science
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Mystery Space Object Sends ‘Inexplicable' Signal to Earth
A mysterious object in space has been sending an 'unexpected' pulsing signal to Earth that is 'unlike anything ever seen before.' The object, which is inside our own galaxy, has been sending signals that are so unique they have completely stumped scientists. The British LBC website quoted Nasa scientist Richard Stanton, who discovered the signal, as saying that he can't rule out the possibility that the signal is coming from an alien civilization. In a study published in the Acta Astronautica scientific journal, Stanton laid out his discovery of an unexpected 'signal' coming from a sun-like star about 100 light-years from Earth in May 2023. The signal was a pulse of light from the star that increases, then decreases and then increases again very quickly - something that the scientist says qualifies it as 'strange.' Even stranger, though, is that the unique signal from the Ursa Major (Great Bear) constellation was repeated again, exactly 4 seconds after it was first sent to Earth. The pulses of light were completely identical, which according to the study, has never been seen in previous searches. The 'unique' signal also made the light from its nearby star behave strangely, and made the star 'partially disappear in a tenth of a second,' according to Stanton. 'In over 1,500 hours of searching, no single pulse resembling these has ever been detected,' he added. 'The fine structure in the star's light between the peaks of the first pulse repeats almost exactly in the second pulse 4.4 seconds later. No one knows how to explain this behavior,' he said. The study shows that a very similar signal was recorded in 2019, but was simply dismissed at 'birds' at the time, which Stanton has ruled out. The scientist also ruled out 'common signals', which can come from meteors, satellites, airplanes, lighting, atmospheric scintillation, and system noise. Stanton said the signals from those sources 'are completely different from these pulses.' The study describes many different potential sources for the signal, including refracting light moving through the Earth's atmosphere, which Stanton said was unlikely. Other possible sources he discussed were starlight diffraction from a distant object in the solar system, or eclipses caused by Earth's satellites or asteroids moving through our solar system. But Stanton said that, in these early stages of research, it is impossible to rule out the involvement of alien intelligence. 'None of these explanations are really satisfying at this point,' said Stanton. 'We don't know what kind of object could produce these pulses or how far away it is.' 'We don't know if the two-pulse signal is produced by something passing between us and the star or if it is generated by something that modulates the star's light without moving across the field,' he added. Stanton said: 'Until we learn more, we can't even say whether or not extraterrestrials are involved!'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Alien Hunters Detect "Unexplained Pulses" Emanating From Two Distant Stars
When looking for extraterrestrial life, scientists found something odd — two bizarre electromagnetic pulses coming from a distant constellation that cannot be explained. In a new study published in the journal Acta Astronautica, researchers from NASA and CalTech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory admitted they could not rule out the chance that the twin star pulses they detected within Ursa Major, some 100 light-years away, were related to alien life. The star in question, HD 89389, is slightly larger and brighter than our Sun and was the focus of observation for veteran NASA scientist Richard Stanton. In 2023, Stanton detected an unexpected signal emanating from the star: two identical and fast pulses roughly 4.4 seconds apart that made it flash brightly, dim, and then flash again. "The star gets brighter-fainter-brighter and then returns to its ambient level," Stanton told Universe Today. "This variation is much too strong to be caused by random noise or atmospheric turbulence. How do you make a star, over a million kilometers across, partially disappear in a tenth of a second? The source of this variation can't be as far away as the star itself." This signal had never been detected before, but to make sure it wasn't something else, the researcher spent an estimated 1,500 hours, which is the equivalent of about two months straight, comparing it to everything from planes and lightning to meteors and system malfunctions. When none of those searches yielded anything similar, Stanton told Universe Today that he felt confident that what he was seeing had not been observed for that Ursa Major star before. However, it did resemble another surprise twin pulse observation from 2019 that emanated from a hot gas giant now named Dimidium located about 50 light-years from Earth. The electromagnetic pulses emitted from Dimidium were initially dismissed as having been caused by birds, as Universe Today notes. To avoid a similarly false conclusion, Stanton began positing all manner of explanations related to the strange signals, including atmospheric conditions on Earth or even an anomalous reading due to our planet's gravity — but none of them "are really satisfying at this point," he said. "We don't know what kind of object could produce these pulses or how far away it is," the scientist said. "We don't know if the two-pulse signal is produced by something passing between us and the star or if it is generated by something that modulates the star's light without moving across the field." It's way too soon to tell what's going on with those strange signals from Ursa Major — but it seems certain that something weird is going on there, and that whatever is causing it will be fascinating indeed. "Until we learn more," Stanton concluded, "we can't even say whether or not extraterrestrials are involved!" More on stars: NASA's James Webb Telescope Just Found Frozen Water Around Another Star
The Sun
19-05-2025
- Science
- The Sun
Mystery object sends ‘pulsing' signal from inside our galaxy like nothing ever seen & scientists ‘can't rule out aliens'
A MYSTERY cosmic object inside our own galaxy has been detected sending out a pulsing signal that has baffled scientists. The signal is so out of the ordinary that scientists cannot rule out the possibility that it is coming from an alien civilisation. 3 3 In a new study, published in the journal Acta Astronautica, Nasa scientist Richard Stanton said he discovered an unexpected "signal" coming from a sun-like star 100 light-years from Earth on 14 May, 2023. Since then, Stanton has observed the pulse of light on three separate occasions. The signal, from star HD 89389 within the constellation Ursa Major, consisted of two fast, identical pulses 4.4 seconds apart. They had not been seen in previous searches, according to the study. The pulses also had several unique characteristics that set them apart from anything scientists had previously observed. This includes fluctuating light from the nearby star, which got "brighter-fainter-brighter" and made the star "partially disappear in a tenth of a second," according to Stanton. The pulses and their individual glows were essentially identical too. "In over 1500 hours of searching, no single pulse resembling these has ever been detected," he added. "The fine structure in the star's light between the peaks of the first pulse repeats almost exactly in the second pulse 4.4s later. No one knows how to explain this behavior." Stunning clip of Milky Way captured in record-breaking detail - scientists say it 'changes view of our galaxy forever' And nothing was moving near the star that could have caused these beams. Sometimes signals produced by airplanes, satellites, meteors, lightning, atmospheric scintillation, and system noise can appear as cosmic signals. Although Stanton noted that common signals "are completely different from these pulses". The pulses match similar beams of light from a different star observed four years ago, according to Stanton. In 2019, a similar pair of pulses was detected around sun-like star HD 217014, some 50.6 light-years from Earth. At the time, the signal was dismissed as a false positive caused by birds, according to Stanton. However, a further analysis ruled out this possibility. 3 The unexplainable pulses could have several causes. While unlikely, according to Stanton, the pulses could be refracting light caused by Earth's atmosphere, possibly due to a shock wave. Other possibilities include starlight diffraction by a distant cosmic object in the solar system, or even partial eclipses caused by Earth satellites or distant asteroids. Until we learn more, we can't even say whether or not extraterrestrials are involved. Nasa scientist Richard Stanton It could also be a gravity wave that generated these pulses, which requires more research. "None of these explanations are really satisfying at this point," said Stanton. "We don't know what kind of object could produce these pulses or how far away it is. "We don't know if the two-pulse signal is produced by something passing between us and the star or if it is generated by something that modulates the star's light without moving across the field. "Until we learn more, we can't even say whether or not extraterrestrials are involved!" Over the years, Stanton has surveyed more than 1,300 sun-like stars for optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) signals from Big Bear, California. The SETI project started out of the the Greenbank Observatory in West Bank, Virginia, more than 60 years ago. Unlike traditional SETI surveys that have used radio antennas, Stanton looks for pulses of light that could result from laser communications or directed-energy arrays. "My approach is to stare at a single star for roughly one hour using photon counting to sample the star's light at what is considered a very high time-resolution for astronomy (100 microsecond samples)," Stanton, a veteran of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), explained. "The resulting time series are then searched for pulses and optical tones. "The instrument uses readily available off-the-shelf components that can be assembled into a PC-based system. I'm not sure if anyone else is doing this with a significant time commitment. "I am not aware of any discovery of similar pulses." Stanton, who is now retired, had previously worked on the Voyager missions and served as the Engineering Manager of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission.
