Mysterious ‘alien’ radio signal is still puzzling astronomers

A mysterious powerful pulse of radio energy from space has baffled astronomers – despite looking at it through 11 different telescopes.

Dubbed a Fast Radio Burst (FRB), it is one of just 22 known examples of a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists since 2007 – incredibly short, high-energy pulses which last for a few milliseconds and erupt with the energy the sun releases in a day.

Scientists are genuinely baffled by the signals from space – and some have suggested the signals could come from aliens.

MORE: PM’s ‘sadness’ at not having children

MORE: Jeremy Corbyn’s election manifesto

A new scientific paper describes a fast radio burst called FRB 150215 which was picked up in ‘real time’ by the Parkes radio telescope in Australia in 2015.

Emily Petroff from the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy says, ‘We spent a lot of time with a lot of telescopes to find anything associated with it.

‘We got new wavelength windows we’ve never gotten before. We’re still trying to figure out where this one came from.’

The researchers write, ‘The burst was followed up with 11 telescopes to search for radio, optical, X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutrino emission.

‘Neither transient nor variable emission was found to be associated with the burst, and no repeat pulses have been observed in 17.25 hours of observing.’