PHONE HOME Could aliens be behind a SECOND mysterious repeating radio signal fired from deep space?

ASTRONOMERS have discovered a set of mysterious radio signals that could have been sent to Earth by a distant alien race.

The repeating Fast Radio Burst, only the second ever found, was fired from a spot 1.5billion light years from our planet – and experts are baffled as to what created it.

Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) are intense pulses of radio waves that last no longer than the blink of an eye and come from far beyond our Milky Way galaxy.

No one knows what causes the strange bursts, but theories range from highly magnetised neutron stars and super-massive black holes to signs of an advanced civilisation.

Around 60 have been discovered over the past decade, but just one repeated.

This burst, known as FRB 121102 or “the repeater”, has produced hundreds of rapid pulses, giving astronomers a rare chance to study its makeup and where it came from.

Now, scientists in Canada have stumbled upon a second repeating FRB, alongside 13 newly detected single bursts.

“Until now, there was only one known repeating FRB. Knowing that there is another suggests that there could be more out there,” said team member Professor Ingrid Stairs, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia.

“With more repeaters and more sources available for study, we may be able to understand these cosmic puzzles—where they’re from and what causes them.”

The flashes of radio signal were picked up by an enormous radio telescope known as the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or Chime.