Gravitational wave illustration

It's the oldest and greatest cosmic question of all: is there anybody out there? For years all we’ve had is the Drake Equation to help us understand the question, but no indication of an answer. Also, a new study suggested that there are likely to be at least 36 ongoing intelligent civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy. But till now we have not got any solid evidence about these intelligent civilizations. Well, so far, we have also found some strange radio signals and strange gamma-ray bursts that are repeating, but none of them are concrete evidence of the existence of an intelligent civilization. But recently scientists have discovered a different kind of signal which is best for intergalactic communication. Astronomers detected a split-second burst of gravitational waves, distortions in space-time but researchers don't know where this burst came from. they are claiming that this signal is different than other gravitational waves. And Astronomers are hoping that maybe it could be due to some artificial object being near a black hole. So, let's dig deeper and understand how this mysterious gravitational wave could be a sign of a highly intelligent civilization.


Usually, Gravitational waves can be caused by the collision of massive objects, such as two black holes or two neutron stars. Astronomers detected such gravitational waves from a neutron star collision in 2017 and from one in April of 2019, according to new findings that were presented at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Jan. 6.

Andy Howell, a staff scientist at Los Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, says gravitational waves from collisions of such massive objects typically last longer and manifest in the data as a series of waves that change in frequency over time as the two orbiting objects move closer to each other.

But this strange gravitational wave signal, picked up by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo interferometer, lasted only 14 milliseconds, and astronomers haven't yet been able to pinpoint the burst's cause or determine whether it was just a blip in the detectors.


LIGO is made up of two observatories: one in Louisiana and one in Washington (above). Each observatory has two long “arms” that are each more than 2 miles (4 kilometers) long. credit-Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab

Some scientists believe that it may have come from the black hole in our galaxy, If this signal is indeed coming from our Sagittarius A* black hole, then the mysterious nature of this gravitational wave suggests that maybe a civilization has been using our galactic black hole.

Our existence in the Universe resulted from a rare combination of circumstances. The same must hold for any highly developed extraterrestrial civilization, and if they have ever existed in the Milky Way, they would likely be scattered over large distances in space and time. However, all technologically advanced species must be aware of the unique property of the galactic center: it hosts Sagittarius A*, the closest supermassive black hole to anyone in the Galaxy. A civilization with sufficient technical know-how may have placed the material in orbit around Sgr A* for research, energy extraction, and communication purposes.

If a sophisticated extraterrestrial civilization would decide to construct a device to study the massive black hole in the Galactic center, or to extract energy from it, or even for intentions unfathomable to the human mind, this device can also serve as a Messenger. 

Odele Straub, A postdoctoral Researcher at, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, says Any material placed in orbit around the black hole, or any other body for that matter, is necessarily a source of gravitational radiation. As a consequence, it loses energy and must spiral inward to a smaller orbit until it eventually merges with the black hole. This process emits a natural gravitational wave signal with a frequency that increases rapidly, like a chirp.

If this gravitational signal is really coming from the center of our galaxy, then for the first time we will get any strong evidence on extraterrestrial life.

However, so far there is no evidence whatsoever that intelligent life has developed anywhere else in the Galaxy or the Universe. We might just be the only species to dream of outer space. Or it might be us who some day in the distant future will overcome all terrestrial discord and advance to a united space-faring civilization and be the first to place a probe around Sagitarrious A*.