Scientists have heard hugely unusual messages from deep in space that they think are coming from aliens. A new analysis of strange modulations in a tiny set of stars appears to indicate that it could be coming from extraterrestrial intelligence that is looking to alert us to their existence. The new study reports the finding of specific modulations in just 234 out of the 2.5 million stars that have been observed during a survey of the sky. The work found that a tiny fraction of them seemed to be behaving strangely. We find that the detected signals have exactly the shape of an [extraterrestrial intelligence] signal predicted in the previous publication and are therefore in agreement with this hypothesis," write EF Borra and E Trottier in a new paper. "The fact that they are only found in a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral range centered near the spectral type of the sun is also in agreement with the ETI hypothesis," the two scientists from Laval University in Quebec write. The research has appeared in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, [and] appears to have been originally suggested for publication with the name 'Signals probably from Extraterrestrial Intelligence', according to a pre-print version of the paper. But they make clear that further work will need to be done to confirm or deny that hypothesis. Breakthrough Listen - an initiative set up this year to look for alien life and supported by people including Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg - said that the message was promising.