Space storms could clarify why we’ve not discovered UFOs but as ET cannot telephone dwelling or earth
Researchers say “space storms” are scrambling alien signals, potentially explaining why we haven’t found ET yet
Stormy space weather is making it difficult to track alien signals(Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)
Extraterrestrials might be trying to reach out to Earth right now – but their messages are getting lost in a massive cosmic storm. Top alien hunters from the SETI Institute say that space weather is making it nearly impossible to pick up signals from far-flung galaxies.
In a scenario echoing the 1982 classic E.T., experts believe that while little green men might be dialling our number, turbulent conditions in deep space are scrambling the connection.
The Silicon Valley team, which receives backing from NASA, warns that violent stellar activity – like solar storms and “plasma turbulence” – is causing ultra-narrow radio signals to spread out and weaken.
Instead of a sharp, clear signal hitting our dishes, the energy gets “smeared” across different frequencies, making it invisible to our current tech.
SETI astronomer Vishal Gajjar said: “If a signal gets broadened by its own star’s environment, it can slip below our detection thresholds, even if it’s there, potentially helping explain some of the radio silence we’ve seen in technosignature searches.”
The groundbreaking report, co-authored by research assistant Grayce C Brown and published in the Astrophysical Journal, suggests we’ve been looking for the wrong thing for decades.
For years, scientists have scoured the heavens for sharp spikes in radio frequencies that couldn’t be made by nature. But this “overlooked complication” means even a perfect message from an alien civilisation could be distorted before it even leaves its home solar system.
SETI said in a statement: “Plasma density fluctuations in stellar winds, as well as occasional eruptive events such as coronal mass ejections, can distort radio waves near their point of origin, effectively ‘smearing’ the signal’s frequency and reducing the peak strength that search pipelines rely on.”
Essentially, the weather is so bad out there that any message is arriving as nothing but static.
The team made the discovery after studying radio signals from our own spacecraft and realising how much our Sun messes with them. They now say we need to change how we listen, possibly by tuning into much higher frequencies.
Grayce C Brown added: “By quantifying how stellar activity can reshape narrowband signals, we can design searches that are better matched to what actually arrives at Earth, not just what might be transmitted.”
The scientific breakthrough follows a bombshell order from Donald Trump, who has demanded that US agencies finally spill the beans on their top-secret UFO files.
The US President confirmed he is directing all departments – including the Pentagon – to “begin the process of identifying and releasing” every government document related to extraterrestrial life.
Trump’s move to declassify the truth comes after his predecessor, Barack Obama, sparked a frenzy by declaring “aliens are real” during a recent podcast appearance.
Although Obama later walked back the comments, insisting he hadn’t seen definitive proof, Trump wasted no time in accusing him of leaking classified intelligence.
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