In 1977, the Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope captured a signal from space so strange that scientists are still baffled by it almost 50 years later. For decades, scientists have struggled to find any natural process capable of producing the 72-second burst which prompted astronomer Jerry Ehman to write'WOW!' on the telescope's readout. Now, new analysis of the so-called WOW! signal has revealed that it might have been caused by a hugely powerful laser slamming into Earth. Experts say this was not the first salvo of an alien invasion, but rather the entirely natural product of a rare alignment between a collapsed star and a cloud of cool hydrogen. Unfortunately for alien-hunters, scientists from the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo say this new evidence shows that the WOW! signal is not evidence of life beyond Earth.

New footage of Arecibo Observatory collapsing in the jungle of Puerto Rico shows the moment its main cables snapped and sent a massive platform hurling to the ground - triggering a reaction that led to its destruction. Drones were investigating cables around the telescope when the restraints failed and dropped the 900-ton platform onto to the reflector dish 400 feet below. In one of the videos, the platform begins swaying in the air before letting out a loud roar as it dislodged from the supporting cable and snapping into pieces as it dropped. The second part of the clip is a view of the cables at the top of a support tower, which shows a group of frayed wires and an empty spot where cables were that had previously failed this year. One of the cables begins to strain and then violently flies out of its support, creating a cloud of smoke and debris.

An asteroid NASA has called "potentially hazardous" was caught whizzing by Earth shortly before Christmas, showing astronomers the dark void at its heart. The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico used its radio telescope to keep an eye on asteroid 3200 Phaethon during its close approach to the planet, creating radar images that revealed new features of the space rock. According to NASA, the asteroid is roughly shaped like a ball and "has a large concavity, or depression, at least several hundred meters in extent near its equator, and a conspicuous dark, circular feature near one of the poles." Arecibo is in an area that was battered by Hurricane Maria earlier this year, and returned to its asteroid-watching activities this month. Astronomers at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico took radar images of the large asteroid Phaethon as it passed close to Earth this month.

The largest single-dish radio telescope in the world has already begun to spot remarkable objects in the Milky Way, just a year into its career. China's Five hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) has detected two rapidly rotating stars, known as pulsars, according to the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC). These objects can act like'cosmic clocks' when they spin at a steady rate, and can even shed light on phenomena such as gravitational waves. China's Five hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) has detected two rapidly rotating stars, known as pulsars, according to the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC). An artist's impression is pictured Pulsars are rotating, highly magnetised neutron stars.