E.T. PHONE CHINA?
Scientists claim to have detected alien signals in a since-deleted report
In mid-June China’s state-backed Science and Technology Daily published a report citing Zhang Tongjie, chief scientist of a SETI team co-founded by Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Berkeley, that suggested China’s Sky Eye radio telescope had detected alien signals.
The report quoted Tongjie as saying that his team had found two sets of potentially alien signals in 2020 while processing data from 2019, and a further signal in 2022 from observations of planets orbiting other stars. All were narrow-band radio signals, which suggests they are not of natural origin, as natural signals tend to be equally spread across the wavebands. Narrow-band radio waves are used extensively on Earth by aircraft and satellites, so the team stressed that their findings are preliminary and need further investigation.
“These are several narrowband electromagnetic signals different from the past, and the team is currently working on further investigation,” Tongjie said. “The possibility that the suspicious signal is some kind of radio interference is also very high, and it needs to be further confirmed and ruled out. This may be a long process.” The report said the team will be making repeat observations to see if they can detect the signals again, obtain as much information about them as possible, and try to conclusively rule out Earthly interference. “We look forward to… being the first to discover and confirm the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations,” Tongjie said.
As soon as the piece was published, it started to spread extensively on social media, particularly the Chinese network Weibo, but then it abruptly disappeared from the Science and Technology Daily
website, with no reason given for its deletion, and media requests for clarification have gone unanswered. bloomberg. com, 15 Jun; livescience.com, Space.com, 16 Jun 2022.
For a round-up of other recent signals from space, turn to p.6.
The report vanished with no reason given for its deletion