Mysterious ‘transients’ that flare up and disappear could be produced by extraterrestrials or natural process we don’t yet understand (Picture: Getty)

Mysterious red lights have been spotted way out in the Milky Way and there’s a chance some may have been produced by alien civilisations.

A team of astronomers has been poring over sightings of ‘vanishing and appearing sources’ of light seen since the 1950s.

These bizarre disappearing lights often resemble stars which spark brightly and are then snuffed out of existence.

But they could also be communication lasers used by extraterrestrial societies.


Researchers analysed 150,000 observations and found 100 weird red lights which have now disappeared.

‘Finding an actually vanishing star – or a star that appears out of nowhere! – would be a precious discovery and certainly would include new astrophysics beyond the one we know of today,’ said Beatriz Villarroel of Stockholm University and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain.

A light can be seen in an old image on the left, but in the more recent right-hand picture it’s disappeared (Photo: Villarroel et al)

When a star dies, it can face several fates.



Sometimes it becomes a white dwarf, whilst others explode in a supernova or collapse to form a black hole.

But there are other more exotic possibilties about what happens to stars at the end of their lives.

It’s possible a black hole can form without a huge explosion, whilst a vanishing star could also be caused by a rare event called a ‘failed supernova’.

It’s thought the red deep space mystery lights are caused by one of these ‘impossible phenomena’.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that aliens are involved.

The stargazers are now looking for evidence of ‘red interstellar communication lasers’ used to beam messages between star systems or Dyson spheres – theoretical giant ‘megastructures’ build around stars to harvest their energy

During the study, the team found 100 red transients which flared up to become several thousand times bright in a short space of time.

Martin López Corredoira of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain, said:’But we are clear that none of these events has shown any direct signs of being extraterrestrial intelligence.

‘We believe that they are natural, if somewhat extreme, astrophysical sources.’

The researchers are now hoping to arrange a citizen science project to analyse 150,000 other weird sightings captured in astronomical photographs.

‘We hope to get help from the community to look through the images as a part of a citizen science project. We are looking at ways to do that right now and that will be something we will be able to talk more about at a later date,’ said Lars Mattsson of Stockholm University.