There have been few occasions when scientists and the public have both been left scratching their heads
This year, the US Congress has heard testimonies from “UFO witnesses”, suggesting there is more evidence than ever of attempts by alien intelligence to make contact with Earth.
But what have been the pivotal moments? When did scientists believe they had found undeniable proof that our little green friends truly exist? Here are five instances that seemed set to revolutionise our understanding of space, reports the Irish Star.
1. Wow! signal.
The first notable moment belongs to the aptly named ‘Wow!’ signal. In 1977, the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University detected an unusual signal.
It was 30 times louder than the typical background noise picked up by monitors and it only hit one frequency on the spectrum, indicating something out of the ordinary. The event is known as the ‘Wow!’ signal because when Astronomer Jerry Ehman first saw it, he simply wrote: “Wow!” next to the data. Supporters of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) suggested it was likely an alien signal, but Ehman remained uncertain according to aas. To this day, its cause remains unknown.
2. Messenger from afar.
In 2017, a strange-looking object made headlines as it entered our solar systems. Named Oumuamua, a Hawaiian term meaning “a messenger from afar arriving first,” the object looked like something from a sci-fi film and many speculated that it was some kind of ship.
Resembling a cigar, it was 10 times more reflective than any other asteroids we had observed. It also accelerated faster than expected for a rock of its size as it whizzed past the sun. Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, suggested that aliens could have crafted the object. Leob’s paper proposed the rock was of “artificial origin” and might have been a discarded piece of alien technology powered by solar energy. However, other scientists insisted Oumuamua was purely natural.
3. Venus phosphine.
In 2020, scientists discovered phosphine on Venus. This was revolutionary as the substance is produced by microbes – and microbes signify life. But Venus was thought to be uninhabitable. The journal, Nature Astronomy, speculated that the phosphine existed in the clouds in Venus’ atmosphere. However, NASA poked holes in the theory when they tried to confirm the study. They found no phosphine, according to URSA.
4. Radio bursts.
In 2007, short bright radio signals which reappeared at intervals, known as “fast radio bursts” were detected. These millisecond-long signals have left scientists puzzled. Once again – Harvard’s Loeb attributed this to alien technology. However, others believe they are simply natural phenomena.
5. Life on Mars.
In 2019, Gilbert Levin who worked on NASA’s Mars life-detection experiment claimed he found signs of life on Mars, according to Scientific American. “The collective general opinion of the large majority of the scientific community does not believe the results of the Viking experiments alone rise to the level of extraordinary evidence,” Allard Beutel, a NASA spokesperson, told The Daily Beast. He was referring to Carl Sagan’s phrase: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” However, there is no concrete evidence that any of these events prove the existence of aliens.
