Sky Eye is the largest radio telescope in the world. (bloomberg)
China said its giant Sky Eye telescope may have picked up signs of life beyond Earth, according to a report in the state-backed Science and Technology Daily, which was then reported and posted about the discovery.
The narrow-band electromagnetic signals detected by Sky Eye, the world’s largest radio telescope, are different from those previously captured and the team is investigating them further, the report said, in an extraterrestrial civilization search. Quoting the team’s chief scientist, Zhang Tonji. Established by Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of California, Berkeley.
However, the suspicious signal could also be some kind of radio interference and this requires further investigation, Zhang said.
It is not clear why the report was apparently removed from the website of the science and technology daily, the official newspaper of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, although the news had already started trending on the social network Weibo and was picked up by other media outlets. , which also includes those run by the state.
In September 2020, Sky Eye, which is located in China’s southwestern Guizhou province and measures 500 meters (1,640 ft) in diameter, officially began the search for extraterrestrial life. According to the report, Zhang said the team, processing data collected in 2019, detected two sets of suspicious signals in 2020, and another suspicious signal in 2022 from observational data from exoplanet targets.
Zhang said that China’s Sky Eye is extremely sensitive in the low-frequency radio bands and plays an important role in the search for alien civilizations.
Calls to Science and Technology Daily were not answered by Bloomberg News.
click for more trending news