Scientists Detect 6 MORE Radio Signals from Deep Space - Potential Alien Communication Considered

2016 has been a crazy year, and it's about to end on a crazier note after scientists discovered six more signals originating from a place in deep space, outside our galaxy.

This makes the count a totla of 17 radio signals - called fast radio bursts (FRBs) that have been received from the same location in space since 2007.Now scientists are on their heels more than ever to check and explore if the planet is being hailed by extraterrestrial life forms.

According to IBTimes, the signals were detected at the Green Bank Telescope in the US and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. According to the Astrophysical Journal, they are described as FRBs. Originally discovered in 2007, they are really fast radio signals (hence the name) that lasts only for a few milliseconds and can only be detected with special equipment.

According to Science Alert, the special thing about the FRBs is that even if they exist for small durations, they generate so much energy that it could parallel the amount of energy the Sun causes for a day.

It is this aspect of the signals, and the fact that there are 17 of them from the same region in deep space, is what's leading scientists to speculate that sufficiently-advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are outside the Milky Way.This discovery, if it were true, would then move our planet along the lines on the Kardashev scale. The technological expertise of civilizations is often determined by the Kardashev scale, named after the Russian scientist who proposed it back in 1964.

It proposes that there are three kinds of civilizations in the universe: Type I utilizes only that much energy which reaches it from the nearest star; Type II has utilized the entire energy of its nearest star for use across planets; and Type III, which harnesses the energy of stars across its galaxy.

Given the nature of the FRBs, it's being speculated that if their source is artificial, they could have been at least sent by a Type II extraterrestrial civilization as a means to reach out to other intelligent civilizations.

That is because the amount of energy in these signals are too much to be produced by conventional means known to man, but could be emitted by an artificial source from a civilization that harnessed the power of an entire star.

What bolstered the belief that this is a hailing signal is the repetitive nature of these FRBs that are being received from beyond the Milky Way. It's been believed so far that the FRBs are caused by the collission of two neutron stars that result in black holes.

However, this now means FRBs are unpredictable and can only be detected by only one or two at a time.