No encounters: most ambitious alien search to date draws a blank

Only intelligent signals Breakthrough Listen project detected in first year are from mobile phones and other Earthly devices

Astronomers who have been listening for signals from alien civilisations in the most intensive hunt for extraterrestrials yet have found no evidence of life in its first year in operation.

The Breakthrough Listen project began to eavesdrop on the universe with the Green Bank observatory in West Virginia in January last year, but the most intelligent transmissions the telescope has picked up so far appear to be from satellites or mobile phones and other Earthly devices.