By Tim Binnall
In a disappointing but not altogether surprising turn of events, a previously detected signal from space that was thought to have possibly been a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence has been determined to have actually originated here on Earth by way of radio frequency interference. The instructive case reportedly began last October when a scientist with the Breakthrough Listen project spotted a curious signal in data that was collected by Australia's Murriyang radio telescope as it observed the sun's nearest neighboring star Proxima Centauri. The organization, which is aimed at looking for signs of ET intelligence in space, quietly set about investigating the discovery before news of what they had found came to light at the end of the year.
Alas, however, hopes that the project had already managed to find the elusive 'technosignature' of an ET race have apparently been dashed as a study of the signal determined that it was a misidentification brought about by radio interference caused by an Earth-bound device. Although they are uncertain as to what object specifically caused the event, researchers managed to find several similar signals which "are spaced at regular frequency intervals in the data, and these intervals appear to correspond to multiples of frequencies used by oscillators that are commonly used in various electronic devices." As such, they concluded that some mysterious malfunctioning machine located near the Murriyang radio telescope at the time of the observation was to blame.
In summation, an official with Breakthrough Listen mused that "this is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing signals we've seen to date,” before conceding that "it's highly unlikely that it is really from a transmitter out at Proxima Centauri.” While the findings may leave some ET enthusiasts crestfallen over yet another false alien alarm, the case may ultimately wind up being a helpful development for the project as it served as something of a test to see how they would investigate promising evidence and, now knowing the process better, perhaps the next unusual piece of data could wind up being the long-awaited sign that we are not alone.