[inquest]

They are looking for a narrow band carrier signal, which would indicate an artifical radio signal, or a previously unobserved phenomenon.

And would it then be "scientific" to attempt to devise a theory that would answer whether it's one or the other?

[js1138]

And would it then be "scientific" to attempt to devise a theory that would answer whether it's one or the other?

It would be scientific to try to develop another, independent line of evidence. It would not be particularly scientific to attempt to derive a history from the phenomenenon itself.