China has claimed that its F.A.S.T. telescope may have detected radio waves from an alien civilisation – before quickly deleting the report.
According to a report published on Tuesday, Chinese astronomers have discovered “several cases of possible technological traces and extraterrestrial civilizations from outside the Earth.” The report was published in Science and Technology Daily – the official newspaper of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
Shortly after its posting, the report was deleted for reasons that remain unclear according to Bloomberg – but not before circulating on the news and social media.
The F.A.S.T. telescope, nicknamed “Sky Eye”, is the biggest radio telescope in the world at half a kilometre across. In 2019 it was tasked with searching for potential signs of extraterrestrial life.
In 2020, the telescope discovered two suspiciously narrow-band radio signals which appeared to be artificial, as they are only known to be used by human aircraft and satellites. A third wave of this type was discovered this year, when the telescope was trained on known planets outside of earth’s solar system.
“These are several narrow-band electromagnetic signals different from the past, and the team is currently working on further investigation,” said Zhang Tongjie, lead scientist at the China Extraterrestrial Civilization Research Group at Beijing Normal University.
However, he added that it could also be a case of simple radio interference, saying “it needs to be further confirmed and ruled out – this may be a long process.”
The development comes a month after the Pentagon held a hearing on around 400 reported encounters with “UFOs” by the US military.
Luis Martinez reports on unidentified aerial phenomena and Congress' first hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years. https://t.co/HKyxgqnUs2 pic.twitter.com/3bLnL7Z69B
— ABC News (@ABC) May 18, 2022
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