Claims are circulating on the internet that China may have detected signals from an extraterrestrial civilization.
The report focuses on observations made by China’s “Sky Eye” — the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), which is situated in Guizhou province in the southwestern region of China.
Zhang Tonjie, the chief scientist of an extraterrestrial civilization investigation team co-founded by Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of California, Berkeley, was quoted in a report by the state-backed Science and Technology Daily.
According to Zhang, the researchers discovered two sets of fascinating signals in 2020 while analyzing FAST data collected in 2019. This year, data on exoplanet targets reportedly revealed the detection of a second signal.
However, Zhang reportedly also suggested that the signals may be the result of radio interference. Reportedly, follow-up FAST observations are forthcoming.
Inside Outer Space spoke with Dan Werthimer, the Marilyn and Watson Alberts SETI Chair in Berkeley’s Astronomy Department and Space Sciences Lab, about the FAST rumors. He collaborates with SETI researchers at Beijing Normal University.
Werthimer dismissed the likelihood that aliens created the FAST signals with superior technology.
“These signals are the result of radio interference; they are not from extraterrestrial life. RFI is the technical name for radio frequency interference. RFI may originate from mobile phones, TV transmitters, radar, satellites, as well as nearby devices and PCs that emit weak radio broadcasts, “Werthimer added.
“Our civilization produces all signals received by SETI researchers to date,” Werthimer said. “Performing SETI observations from the surface of our planet is becoming increasingly difficult. As more transmitters and satellites are constructed, radio pollution becomes more severe. Certain radio channels are no longer usable for SETI.”
Werthimer said that humans might ultimately have to go to the far side of the moon to conduct SETI research.
“A radio telescope on the moon’s far side would be protected from our planet’s radio interference,” he said.
