Alien life confirmed? China says it could have detected evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations

[midian182]

WTF?! Has China discovered signs of alien civilizations? According to the country's state-backed Science and Technology Daily, the detection of new possible artificial signals suggests this could be the case. But then it might also just be radio interference.

As per Bloomberg, the report, all traces of which appear to have now been deleted, revealed that narrow-band electromagnetic signals were detected by the five-hundred-meter-diameter (1,600 feet) Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), nicknamed Sky Eye—the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the world. Exactly why the original report was removed isn't clear.

FAST, which is extremely sensitive to low-frequency radio waves, joined the Breakthrough Listen SETI project in October 2016 to search for intelligent extraterrestrial communications in the Universe. It has been looking for alien life since becoming fully operational in 2020, having been fitted out with back-end equipment designed for the task a couple of years earlier, writes Yicai Global.

The new signals differ from ones captured previously, and the team is investigating them, said Zhang Tonjie, chief scientist of the extraterrestrial civilization search team co-founded by Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Zhang said that two sets of suspicious data were found in 2020 while processing data collected in 2019, and another in 2022 from observation data of exoplanet targets.

Before we start getting ready to welcome our new alien overlords, Zhang gave a very important caveat: "The suspicious signal may also be some kind of radio interference, which needs to be further confirmed or ruled out," he said. "This may be a long process."

Zhang previously said he doesn't subscribe to the theory that we should be wary of looking for alien life that may want to take Earth's resources. "Imagine if you are sailing a boat on a stormy dark sea and see a weak light from another sailing boat in the distance. Will you take out your gun to shoot him, or find him so you can help and depend on each other?" he said. "We may not be able to survive on Earth one day. We'll need the help of alien civilizations."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/94951-aliens-china-could-have-detected-evidence-extraterrestrial-civilizations.html

 

[Endymio]

""Imagine you are sailing a boat on a stormy dark sea and see a weak light from another sailing boat in the distance. Will you take out your gun to shoot him, or find him so you can help and depend on each other?"

If he's got food and fresh water, and you don't -- all bets are off.

 

[VitalyT]

All these talks of aliens, overlords, taking over earth resources, etc., is like being in a kindergarten.

It makes no sense to conduct research on such a scale and perceive it as some kind of joke at the same time, which is what narrated here.

 

[captaincranky]

It makes no sense to conduct research on such a scale and perceive it as some kind of joke at the same time, which is what narrated here.

A lot of research is done to give researchers jobs.

This is very similar to religious leaders, who we allow to feed us a constant line of bullsh!t, so they don't have to get real jobs.

 

[Xex360]

A lot of research is done to give researchers jobs.

This is very similar to religious leaders, who we allow to feed us a constant line of bullsh!t, so they don't have to get real jobs.

Because real jobs are hard and don't pay much, we created a world in which in which fake jobs like executives, marketing, lawyers, military... Etc executives of companies like EA get millions doing absolutely nothing remotely useful (one might say they are doing harmful things) while farmers who feed us struggle to make ends meet.

 

[Lew Zealand]

A lot of research is done to give researchers jobs.

This is very similar to religious leaders, who we allow to feed us a constant line of bullsh!t, so they don't have to get real jobs.

It's almost as if off-topic articles on a computer tech website might not be a useful place to criticize researchers' work analyzing radio signals from space.

Hmmm...

 

[BadThad]

FAKE news courtesy of the Chinese communists!

 

[R00sT3R]

Aliens phoning in their Chinese takeaway order?

 

[captaincranky]

Because real jobs are hard and don't pay much, we created a world in which in which fake jobs like executives, marketing, lawyers, military... Etc

Nah, I'm all for this type of research. Who knows, we might even become "pen pals" with an alien civilization.. Which is cool if you're willing to wait maybe a thousand years or so for a reply. Which will create more work in "the research sector", manning the headphones. Who knows, if their society is advanced enough, they might even have emojis.

Besides, I beg your pardon about including lawyers in your list of ne'er do wells. Ambulance chasing is a noble profession. In fact, you even have to "listen for signals from space", to know where the potential lawsuit happened.

executives of companies like EA get millions doing absolutely nothing remotely useful (one might say they are doing harmful things) while farmers who feed us struggle to make ends meet.

If by "EA", you mean "Electronic Arts", I would say, just because the guy on the corner is selling crack, doesn't mean you have to buy it and smoke it. Then proceed to whimper about it afterwards. Sic, "this game sucks", "it isn't anywhere near as good as the first one, "I paid good money for that loot box, and there was nothing in it".

 

[captaincranky]

It's almost as if off-topic articles on a computer tech website might not be a useful place to criticize researchers' work analyzing radio signals from space.

Hmmm...

To the upside, if the ChiComs are pissing away money they could be spending on h-bombs and aircraft carriers, I'm all for it. Build a few more, why dontcha?

Competition is really what's it's all about though, isn't it? The Chinese want the claim of having the largest radio telescope in the world. Now what good would that do them without supposedly hearing "voices from space"?.

 

[wiyosaya]

As I see it, the problem is that without the actual aliens the operative word in such a discovery is "maybe" and that could also equate to "maybe not".

Short of aliens landing on Earth and introducing themselves to CNN, or if you prefer, Fox News, proof of alien life intelligent enough to generate such a signal is virtually impossible for any human to produce.

As the article implies, the simplest answer is that the signal is interference, IMO.

My bet is that further research will confirm the signal is interference, or at least come up with an explanation that does not involve alien life.

 

[Lew Zealand]

To the upside, if the ChiComs are pissing away money they could be spending on h-bombs and aircraft carriers, I'm all for it. Build a few more, why dontcha?

Competition is really what's it's all about though, isn't it? The Chinese want the claim of having the largest radio telescope in the world. Now what good would that do them without supposedly hearing "voices from space"?.

What with the Arecibo crash-in, they now have the largest single-dish radio telescope on the Earth. Unfortunately for them, radio astronomy moved on to multi-small telescope arrays a while ago as they are far more sensitive and steerable.

The ChiComs got a maybe-but-very-likely-not alien signal.

The radio telescope arrays got 2 pictures of black holes, Sag A* and M87, and a Nobel Prize.

 

[wiyosaya]

It makes no sense to conduct research on such a scale and perceive it as some kind of joke at the same time, which is what narrated here.

That's the thing with research. Researchers sometimes prematurely release their research only to later have the initial conclusions proved totally wrong. Whether we like it or not, it is an essential part of the scientific process.

 

[Lew Zealand]

That's the thing with research. Researchers sometimes prematurely release their research only to later have the initial conclusions proved totally wrong. Whether we like it or not, it is an essential part of the scientific process.

The power of the scientific method is not the initial findings, it's the replication or correction, refining, and finally, predictions you can make based on those established conclusions. If the finding doesn't allow for at least decent predictions, then what's the use?

 

[captaincranky]

The radio telescope arrays got 2 pictures of black holes, Sag A* and M87, and a Nobel Prize.

See, it's like women have been telling us all along "size doesn't matter".

 

[captaincranky]

That's the thing with research. Researchers sometimes prematurely release their research only to later have the initial conclusions proved totally wrong. Whether we like it or not, it is an essential part of the scientific process.

I would think in this case, they're under pressure to produce "results", be it overt or covert. Hell, if we're to believe The National Enquirer, aliens have been among us for decades.

 

[Lew Zealand]

See, it's like women have been telling us all along "size doesn't matter".

I guess if it's all about "how you use it"...

The arrays of little scopes can be combined into a telescope the equivalent size of the Earth itself in terms of spatial resolution. Sorta like upgrading from a 4K monitor to a 25,500K monitor.

So also bigger in important ways...

 

[sickb0y]

Naw is just China doing what China does, stealing comcast cable signal.

 

[wiyosaya]

I guess if it's all about "how you use it"...

The arrays of little scopes can be combined into a telescope the equivalent size of the Earth itself in terms of spatial resolution. Sorta like upgrading from a 4K monitor to a 25,500K monitor.

So also bigger in important ways...

Agreed about the spatial resolution - but the actual signal gathering power of this Chinese scope is much greater than "Array" based scopes since its a "filled aperture" scope.

 

[captaincranky]

Naw is just China doing what China does, stealing comcast cable signal.

That' not very nice> I'm sire the absolute worst thing the Chinese are doing is sharing Netflix passwords.

 

[wiyosaya]

That' not very nice> I'm sire the absolute worst thing the Chinese are doing is sharing Netflix passwords.

At least until Netflix puts a stop to it.

 

[waclark]

""Imagine you are sailing a boat on a stormy dark sea and see a weak light from another sailing boat in the distance. Will you take out your gun to shoot him, or find him so you can help and depend on each other?"

If he's got food and fresh water, and you don't -- all bets are off.

Exactly my thoughts. It's not like we didn't spend nearly a century (or more) doing exactly this. Or rather the English, French and Spanish did. If you see a boat on the horizon, first you determine if it's bigger and faster than yours. If not, you go after it, take what they have, execute the crew and take over the boat.

I guess they never heard of pirates in China.

 

[Alfatawi Mendel]

The Three Body Problem.....

 

[captaincranky]

The Three Body Problem.....

Dude, that's deep. Now stop bogarding the joint.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Oh look another ethnic minority they can imprison and sterilise. Or maybe the aliens can hand over their manufacturing to the Chinese like the stupid West did.