Scientists looking for aliens investigate radio beam from nearby star

Also, class M star:

>In 2017, Nasa scientists used computer models to show that if Proxima b had an Earth-like atmosphere, it could easily be stripped away by the intense radiation and solar flares unleashed by its parent star. Under this battering, the 4bn-year-old planet could have lost its entire atmosphere in 100m years.

Yep. They burn the longest, but they don't burn cleanly. They "sputter", unleashing huge flares that can erode atmospheres, and their luminosities can fluctuate randomly. Imagine if the Earth was plunged into a 13-year-long superwinter because the Sun decided to be a bit less bright for a while.

(In the Three Body Problem books, a planet there has wild climatic instability owing to the chaotic orbit around Alpha Centauri's three stars.)

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri

I don't think the researchers are necessarily suggesting an alien origin (honestly, shame on them if they are). It's more likely sensationalist reporting. It's almost certainly natural in origin.

[1]: https://www.britannica.com/place/Jupiter-planet/The-auroras

The UFO crowd is going to have a field day with that quote.

“If there is intelligent life there, it would almost certainly have spread much more widely across the galaxy. The chances of the only two civilisations in the entire galaxy happening to be neighbours, among 400bn stars, absolutely stretches the bounds of rationality.”

If there are 2 alien civilisations in our galaxy surely it's equally likely they are next to each other or some arbitrary distance.