Gamma ray bursts are actually alien signals sent out by extraterrestrials in an attempt to make contact with life elsewhere in the universe, an astronomer has sensationally claimed.
The phenomena were thought by scientists to be an event which occurs when a massive star dies and implodes to form a new black hole.
However, some astronomers have different theories, and believe the intense explosions could be a result of alien activity.
The deep space eruptions only last for a matter of milliseconds, meaning that to transfer information would require an astonishing amount of energy.
But John A. Ball, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believes the gamma ray bursts are powerful enough to carry enough information.
He said a two-millisecond gamma ray burst could carry 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1x10 to the power of 18) bits of information.
According to Mr Ball, this is "comparable to the estimated total information content of Earth's biosystem — genes and memes and including all libraries and computer media.”
In a piece titled ‘Gamma Ray Bursts The ETI [extraterrestrial intelligence] Hypothesis’, Mr Ball proposes: “Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) may be signals transmitted by extraterrestrial civilisations.