Peer reviewed and published in prestigious journals. Two papers. Beatriz Villarroel. 

Thousands of transients in geostationary orbit... before humans launched satellites. Beatriz accepts the possibility of some unknown natural phenomenon, but she can't think of any explanation except artificial satellites. 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2025Oct 21 by martin-w

I had a quick look at the papers. Both are published in very respectable, but not extremely prestigious, scientific journals. Scientific Reports, for instance, is a brand of the Nature publishing group where peer review mostly focuses on correctness, not so much significance. If this had been a big breakthrough, they probably would have been able to publish it in Nature. 

More importantly, neither of the papers mentions anything about non-human intelligence or extraterrestrial origin. What has been accepted by the journals is a solid re-evaluation of old observations pre-dating human-made satellites, and one of the papers even establishes a correlation with nuclear tests. Villarroel may be motivated by the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, but what has passed peer review has nothing to do with that.

Peter

4 hours ago, qqwertz said:

More importantly, neither of the papers mentions anything about non-human intelligence or extraterrestrial origin.

 Villarroel may be motivated by the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, but what has passed peer review has nothing to do with that.

 

Well, yes, of course. As I mentioned,  Beatriz accepts the possibility of some unknown natural phenomenon, but she can't think of any explanation except artificial satellites, currently. She's not said the papers were about extraterrestrial inteligence.

If the papers had specifically mentioned non-human intelligence I doubt it would have been published.

 

4 hours ago, qqwertz said:

one of the papers even establishes a correlation with nuclear tests.

 

The transients are in geosynchronous orbit. 35,000 killometres, I recall. So that correlation is unlikely to be causal. And of course, the UFO nuclear connection is something the UFO researchers claim. Incidents near nuclear assets are claimed.

 

 

Edited October 21, 2025Oct 21 by martin-w

Seems a bit “dramatic” … anytime I see word “Shocking” used in an scientific process, I come pre-charged with a good dose of skepticism.

If life exists that has passed the “filter” of self-destruction, it could be very plausible.  Any life that was able to pass the filter, they would probably be very interested in life that is closing in on the “filter” … hence the transients in orbit observing around a significant event like Nuclear.

I would like to believe a life form so advanced as to make it here in our period of existence would understand the fragility of life and the “filter” … as such would be in place to observe and possible intervention if needed.  I don’t see the Star Trek world of “non-interference” (although they do interfere rather frequently or else there would be no show 😉 ), an advanced life form would understand the rarity and importance of life. 

As suggested, since “replication” (be it biological life or artificial life or some combination) is a real process, then such advanced life would have populated vast areas of our known universe (13+ billion years old).  But we seem unable to detect extra terrestrial life … so either the “shocking” news might be accurate or we just don’t have the technology yet to detect or something else.

I do find it fascinating that life can replicate … Abiogenesis.

9 hours ago, SayAgain said:

Seems a bit “dramatic” … anytime I see word “Shocking” used in an scientific process, I come pre-charged with a good dose of skepticism.

 

Yeah, that's the channel, Reality Check, that focuses on the sensational. There are interviews with her that are more scientific.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2025Oct 22 by martin-w

12 hours ago, SayAgain said:

If life exists that has passed the “filter” of self-destruction, it could be very plausible.  Any life that was able to pass the filter, they would probably be very interested in life that is closing in on the “filter” … hence the transients in orbit observing around a significant event like Nuclear.

 

I suspect there would be multiple "great filters". Perhaps "closing in" on the most significant great filter? Or possibly, given the age of the planet, the Silurian Hypothesis,  unlikely that we would have any available evidence that a prior civilization existed. 

 

12 hours ago, SayAgain said:

an advanced life form would understand the rarity and importance of life. 

 

Indeed, technologically advanced life might be very rare indeed, as a result of one of the great filters you mention, or simply due to the rarity of complex lifeforms. Simple life evolved here as soon as the Earth cooled, so relatively fast, so seems relatively easy. Whereas complex technological life (us) took one third of the age of the universe to arise, so seems hard. It is possible that advanced technological life in our galaxy is just us, or perhaps just a handful of species. The time factor is also important to consider, in that an advanced species, in the 13.8 billion year age of the universe, would have to coincide with our timeframe to be detectable by us.