Russia's 'message from space' might have a more Earthly cause

(File)
(File)

A team of Russian researchers recently reported picking up a message from space.

Unfortunately, even scientists from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) say it probably wasn't ET.

They believe the signal probably had an Earthly cause: a satellite, a stellar flare, a software glitch or any number of far more likely scenarios.

The three-second signal burst came from 94 light years away, in the HD 164595 star system. To broadcast that kind of signal would have taken a lot of energy - hundreds of times more energy than all the sunlight falling on the Earth.

Also, the Russian scientists took over a year to report it, so there was no possible confirmation or a follow-up detection.

Still, some have compared it to 1977's famous "Wow!" signal.

Back then a US radio telescope detected a 72-second transmission from space.

They still don't know what produced it and, despite repeated attempts, it was never detected again.

Newshub.