Scientists detect mystery radio signals from a distant galaxy about three billion light years away

Remember The X-Files, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who are on a mission to investigate the sidelined and unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena? 

One-liners that sent chills down the spine, “They're not coming... They're here,” “The truth is still out there,” and the most prolific “The Truth Is Out There?”

Well, that was a science fiction drama series for television but what we are discussing here is the real X-Files level news.

Scientists have detected radio signals coming from a galaxy about three billion light years away and they believe this could be a signal of intelligent life other than us in the universe.

Breakthrough Listen, an initiative to search for signs of intelligent life in the universe has detected 15 Fast Radio Bursts or FRBs from distant galaxies emanating from an unexplained source. 

Breakthrough Listen is a global astronomical initiative launched by Internet investor and philanthropist Yuri Milner and cosmologist Stephen Hawking in 2015 as part of their programme to observe nearby stars and galaxies for signs of extraterrestrial technology. 

When a name as big as Stephen Hawking is directly involved in the project, it ought to be taken seriously.

Breakthrough Listen has been looking to prove the existence of other intelligent life in the universe and now says that 15 bursts of radio emission were detected at their Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.  

August 26 was the day when Breakthrough Listen detected 15 bursts for 5 hours. FRB’s are “brief, bright pulses of radio emission from distant galaxies” according to a statement from Breakthrough Listen. 

The chief scientists behind the discovery include some of the world’s top astrophysicists as well as members of SETI, (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence).