Astronomers Have Found a Galaxy Sending Repeated Radio Waves in Our Direction

It's gotta be aliens, right? The honest answer is, no one knows. Gizmodo reports that we finally do know the location of a galaxy that has been emitting repeated radio waves! While it's not uncommon for our satellites to pick up the occasional radio wave from space, this is the only instance of a rapid repeated signal coming from the same location. Astronomers have now dubbed this galaxy FRB 121102.

Don't worry about memorizing that name, because that galaxy is over 20 billion light years from Earth. Even if there is something there, we aren't reaching it any time in the next millennia. That might be for the best, as the thing that amazes astronomers the most is the strength of the radio signal despite its immense range from Earth. Is it possible we're receiving contact from a highly advanced race?

I really hope not. The last thing I want is for our first discovery of an alien species to be a species far more advanced than we are! Those scenarios don't often play out well. Let's hope it's just some weird stuff we don't understand yet.