Could these strange star signals be coming from aliens?

Two astronomers who observed strange, strobe-like signals from space say they “strongly suspect” they are messages from aliens.

Ermanno Borra, of the Laval University in Quebec, and his graduate student Eric Trottier, analysed light from 2.5 million stars recorded in a survey of the sky.

Of those, they found 234 stars deemed to be sending “unusual” signals.

These, they believe, may be alien civilisations sending messages to earth by using lasers, something Borra hypothesised about in 2012.

“We find that the detected signals have exactly the shape of an [extraterrestrial intelligence] signal predicted in the previous publication and are therefore in agreement with this hypothesis,” the pair write in a new paper.

“The fact that they are only found in a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral range centered near the spectral type of the sun is also in agreement with the ETI hypothesis.”

The study has divided the scientific community, with many observers arguing it is too early to make such bold claims.

“We have to follow a scientific approach, not an emotional one. But intuitively — my emotion speaks now — I strongly suspect that it’s an ETI [extraterrestrial intelligence] signal,” Borra added.

Breakthrough Listen — an programme set up this year to look for alien life, which is supported by the likes of Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg — urged caution.

MORE: Facebook will no longer censor graphic posts — as long as they’re ‘newsworthy’
MORE: Samsung rushed Note7 replacement, debated ignoring early concerns, report says

“The one in 10,000 objects with unusual spectra seen by Borra and Trottier are certainly worthy of additional study,” it said in statement.

“However, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. It is too early to unequivocally attribute these purported signals to the activities of extraterrestrial civilisations,” it added.

“Internationally agreed-upon protocols for searches for evidence of advanced life beyond Earth (SETI) require candidates to be confirmed by independent groups using their own telescopes, and for all natural explanations to be exhausted before invoking extraterrestrial agents as an explanation.

“Careful work must be undertaken to determine false positive rates, to rule out natural and instrumental explanations, and most importantly, to confirm detections using two or more independent telescopes.”

Peter Plavchan, at Missouri State University in Springfield, told the New Scientist: “They don’t consider every natural possibility and jump prematurely to the supernatural – so to speak – conclusion. I think it’s way too premature to do that.”

He added that he believes the findings, in fact, may be down to human error.