A pair of astronomers from Harvard suggest that the mysterious space phenomena known as 'fast radio bursts' could be coming from aliens!
The possibility that the rare and enigmatic pulses are produced by ETs had previously been largely considered a fanciful idea only taken seriously by UFO enthusiasts.
However a new paper from two Harvard astrophysicists argues that the concept has merit and should be taken seriously.
Given their considerable strength and the fact that astronomers still do not know how they are created, the researchers say, "an artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking."
Working backwards from this idea, the scientists determined that an enormous solar power transmitter could, in fact, produce the qualities seen in the perplexing FRBs.
The purpose for such a device, they theorize, would be to discharge a huge amount of directed energy out into space in order to provide power for spacecraft.
In light of what we know about the potency of the fast radio bursts, the researchers concluded that, if their scenario is correct, the solar transmitter could power a ship carrying a million ton payload!
"That's big enough to carry living passengers across interstellar or even intergalactic distances," one of the scientists observed in the paper.
The reason why we would only see the stream as a burst from Earth is because the host planet as well as our own world are continuously moving.
While it remains to be seen whether future observations of FRBs will prove the hypothesis correct, the paper indicates that the 'ET theory' is not only still in play, but that it now has a pair of PhDs seriously proposing it.
Unfortunately for UFO enthusiasts, if the pulses really are the result of an ET power system, that would mean that the aliens aren't trying to call us and we've only accidentally eavesdropped on them.
Source: PhysOrg