'Alien' signal mystery in outer space finally solved by scientists

An 'alien' signal that has puzzled scientists since 2022 may have finally been solved.

When the incident took place, a radio telescope detected a burst of energy with enough light to overshadow galaxies appeared 200 million light-years from Earth, sparking theories that it was a UFO signal.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been looking into it ever since, and concluded that an ET sequel isn't coming, but rather it was a rotating neutron star (also known as the remains of a dead sun).

They are now using 'scintillation' (otherwise known as how twinkly stars are when we look at them) to measure the distance of how far away these burst form. The smaller the burst and the further away it forms, the more it twinkles, and using this logic, have estimated that this particular burst, known as FRB 20221022A, was 10,000 kilometres away from the neutron star.

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"Around these highly magnetic neutron stars, also known as magnetars, atoms can't exist — they would just get torn apart by the magnetic fields", says, Professor Kiyoshi Masui, one of those involved in the investigation.

"The exciting thing here is, we find that the energy stored in those magnetic fields, close to the source, is twisting and reconfiguring such that it can be released as radio waves that we can see halfway across the universe."

Make no mistake, fast radio burst (or FRBs) are not a new thing - thousands have been detected over the years - but scientists continue to be divided as to their origins, when they've been so different.

Some have speculated powerful magnetic fields from neutron stars far away, while others suggest they could form in the turbulent magnetosphere.

However, for now, we can probably rule out aliens.

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