"Little Green Men 1"

The claim

"A radio pulse ticking every 1.3 seconds was an alien beacon."

Where the idea comes from

PhD student Jocelyn Bell Burnell found a regular "scruff" on chart recordings; the team half-jokingly labelled it LGM-1.

What the evidence shows

1. The pulses were too regular for any known natural source, which is why aliens were briefly considered.
2. Finding similar sources elsewhere in the sky made aliens unlikely: it was a new type of star.
3. It was the first pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star. The discovery earned a Nobel Prize in 1974 (for Antony Hewish, controversially not Bell Burnell).

What is still open

Nothing; a textbook example of science doing its job.

Our verdict

Explained A spinning dead star, not a beacon.

Sources

• Jocelyn Bell Burnell (Wikipedia)
• Pulsar (Wikipedia)

Checked 31 October 2026. Spotted a newer source? Tell us.