Alien messages may have reached Earth without us realizing it

A new SETI study suggests we may be overlooking alien signals not because they aren't there, but because their own stars are scrambling them before they escape into space. Turbulent plasma and powerful stellar storms can spread an ultra-narrow radio transmission across a wider range of frequencies, making it much harder for traditional searches to spot. The effect could be especially important around M-dwarf stars, the most common stars in the Milky Way.