UFO Buster Radio News – 317: 100 Stars Missing In The Night Sky and Astronomer Has 'little doubt' We Are Not Alone

Weird ‘Vanishing Stars’ Could Potentially Be Aliens, Study Claims

Link: https://gizmodo.com/weird-vanishing-stars-could-potentially-be-aliens-st-1840486666

A comparative analysis of historical and contemporary astronomical data has resulted in the discovery of approximately 100 star-like objects that unexpectedly vanished. These strange occurrences are likely natural, but scientists say alien technology is a remote possibility.

They start off as dim red dots in the night sky. But then they start to get brighter—anywhere from several to thousands of times brighter. And then they disappear, vanishing from sight in typically less than an hour.

New research published in the Astronomical Journal calls them “red transients,” of which roughly 100 have been chronicled by the authors, a team led by Beatriz Villarroel from Stockholm University and the Institute of Astrophysics of Canarias in Spain. More colloquially, they’re referred to as “vanishing stars,” and they’re baffling scientists.

The red transients were detected thanks to Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO)—a project that’s living up to its name. Established in 2017, VASCO researchers are hunting for objects outside of Earth’s immediate area that have mysteriously disappeared. As the authors note in the study:

Unless a star collapses directly into a black hole, there is no known physical process by which it could physically vanish. If such examples exist this makes it interesting for searches for new exotic phenomena or even signs of technologically advanced civilizations.

From a pool of 600 million objects, the scientists found 151,193 that weren’t represented in the modern catalogs. To date, Villarroel and her colleagues have only had a chance to analyze 23,667 of these anomalous objects, or just 15.7 percent. Taking this preliminary sample set aside and studying them closer, the researchers found most of them to be “artifacts of various sorts,” wrote the authors, such as smudges on lenses and other visual defects.

Fascinatingly, the researchers devoted significant space in the new study for a more radical possibility: the activities of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). As the authors speculate, the dots of red light could be powerful lasers used for interstellar communication or heat waste emanating from Dyson spheres—hypothetical megastructures that envelop entire stars.

“But we are clear that none of these events have shown any direct signs of being ETI,” said Martin López Corredoira, a co-author of the paper, in a press release. “We believe that they are natural, if somewhat extreme, astrophysical sources.”

Aliens are out there: Astronomer has 'little doubt' we are not alone in the universe

Link: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1217657/Aliens-news-alien-life-out-there-astronomer-little-doubt-we-are-not-alone-universe

In 2020, NASA will launch a Mars rover to the Red Planet to trawl the alien world for evidence of past life.

And projects like SETI or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence are continuously listening to the night skies for signs of contact.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is one of the scientists who have very “little doubt” humans are not the only intelligent life to call this cosmos home.

The space scientist told The Guardian the numbers are stacked in favour of a diverse universe.

Dr Aderin-Pocock said: “I sometimes wonder where the aliens are, but I have little doubt that they’re out there. It’s the numbers game.

“There are just too many planets, galaxies, solar systems, moons and stars to think there can’t be more life.

“I think though that there’s a great many variables that would need to happen to result in us making contact.

“Maybe they came in the age of the dinosaurs and left because they had no one to communicate with.

“I actually think that aliens arriving would be brilliant for us. Us putting aside our differences and getting our act together to face invading aliens might...