The issue focused on an article published in the journal Science in 2012 that claimed the discovery of gravitational waves was evidence of the existence of an alien spacecraft.

A team of astronomers, led by Professor Peter Wadhams, said the study, which was the first to directly detect gravitational waves, was "clearly a major step towards understanding the nature of black holes."

But the team was unable to detect evidence of the waves, and their results were published in Nature Communications last week.

The discovery