China says it detected alien signals using giant 'Sky Eye' telescope

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June 15 (UPI) -- Scientists in China have announced that they've detected what may be signals from an alien civilization using the world's largest radio telescope, but warned they could be just radio interference.

Science and Technology Daily, the official newspaper of China's Ministry of Science and Technology, reported Tuesday that the team of scientists from Beijing Normal University identified two groups of "suspicious" signals in 2020 and a third this year.

Professor Zhang Tongjie said the signals weren't necessarily proof of extraterrestrial life. Zhang, who is the chief scientist of China ET Civilization Research Group, was once dubbed "China's top alien hunter," according to USA Today.

"The possibility that the suspicious signal is some kind of radio interference is also very high, and it needs to be further confirmed and ruled out. This may be a long process," Zhang said.

The FAST telescope in southwest China's Guizhou province detected what researchers believe could be signals from an alien civilization. File Photo courtesy of STR/EPA

Tuesday's report said the group of researchers used Sky Eye, a 1,640-foot Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, in Guizhou province to detect "several cases of possible technological traces and extraterrestrial civilizations from outside the earth." Zhang said the telescope found multiple, unique narrow-band electromagnetic signals.

The telescope, known as FAST, scans the sky for certain signals that could be produced artificially, Newsweek reported. The sensitive equipment is able to pick out the narrow-band radio signals from other background noises in deep space.

The telescope has been trained on exoplanets, which are planets outside of Earth's solar system.

Zhang said his team plans to use FAST to explore the signals further to try to determine their origin.