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Scientists say they have found 50 galaxies that may contain intelligent alien races.

These galaxies were found to be emitting 'unusually high' levels of radiation - possibly indicating 'the presence of a highly advanced civilisation.'

Within these galaxies, the researchers said it was possible that an alien race could be harnessing the power of the stars - emitting huge amounts of noticeable heat in the process.

Pennsylvania scientists find evidence that we might not be alone. They found 50 galaxies emitting unusually high levels of radiation. This could be because aliens are harnessing the power of entire stars. However, further research is needed to confirm that is the case. Shown is Arp 220, one promising galaxy candidate

The study was conducted by Dr Jason Wright from the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State University in Pennsylvania.

The Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies Survey (G-Hat), published in the Astrophysical Journal, details how the team thought they might see the infrared signature of a race far more advanced than ours.

'The idea behind our research is that, if an entire galaxy had been colonised by an advanced spacefaring civilization, the energy produced by that civilization's technologies would be detectable in mid-infrared wavelengths,' said Dr Wright.

The energy used by such a race to be noticeable would have to be huge - likely harnessing the power of a galaxy's stars.

But Dr Wright said that 'fundamental thermodynamics tells us that this energy must be radiated away as heat in the mid-infrared wavelengths'.

This would make them noticeable to Nasa's Wise telescope, used in the study.

The researchers picked out 100,000 galaxies of interest, and found that 50 of them were emitting 'unusually high levels of mid-infrared radiation.'

'Our follow-up studies of those galaxies may reveal if the origin of their radiation results from natural astronomical processes, or if it could indicate the presence of a highly advanced civilization,' said Dr Wright.

A proposed method for harnessing the power of an entire star is known as a Dyson sphere (artist's impression shown). First proposed by theoretical physicist freeman Dyson in 1960, this would be a swarm of satellites that surrounds a star to gather its energy

The findings were made using Nasa's orbiting Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (Wise) telescope (artist's illustration shown). This telescope is perfect for detecting mid-infrared radiation that an advanced alien race might be emitting

However, talking to MailOnline, Dr Wright noted that the findings were not a sure-fire sign of alien life. The observations could simply be due to natural phenomena, such as dust and star formation.

He said, including the 50 galaxies, none of the 100,000 were found 'with more than 85 per cent of their light being used by alien industry.'

However, it's possible that some galaxies do harbour advanced alien life - but they are emitting less energy than we can currently detect.

'The harder we look and the longer we work, the better our detection limit will be, and the less energy a galaxy-spanning civilization would need to use for us to discover it,' he added.

Another possibility, of course, is that such civilisations simply don't exist.

But Dr Wright and his colleagues will be hoping that is not the case - and they are continuing to study galaxies for signs that we are not alone. 

The Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies Survey (G-Hat), published in the Astrophysical Journal, details how the team thought they might see the infrared signature of a race far more advanced than ours. None have been confirmed yet - but the signs so far could be considered promising