We finally know the cause of the Wow! Signal
- Ken Ecott
- Jun 6, 2017
- 3 min read
Mysterious 'Wow! signal' in 1977 was not a message from aliens but triggered by gas from passing comets
On August 15th 1977, a radio telescope located at Ohio State University detected something strange. The telescope was scanning the stars searching for possible signals from alien civilizations as part of the SETI project, and on that date it found something. The telescope recorded an incredibly strong signal appearing to come from somewhere in the direction of Sagittarius; the signal only lasted about a minute and was never detected again.
The signal was so strong that astronomer Jerry Ehman, who first spotted it, circled it in red pen and wrote "Wow!" in the margin. The "Wow! signal," as it would come to be known, became the best evidence ever obtained for extraterrestrial life.
At least, until now. One astronomer believes he's figured out what really caused the Wow! signal and—spoiler alert—it's not aliens.
Astronomer Antonio Paris has been studying the Wow! signal for a long time. In 2016, he released a paper along with fellow astronomer Evan Davies suggesting that the signal could have been caused by a comet orbiting in the inner solar system. Specifically, the 2016 paper identified two comets, 266P/Christensen and P/2008 Y2 (Gibbs), that were both in the area where the Wow! signal was detected.
Both of these comets have large hydrogen clouds surrounding them that could produce the kind of signal detected in 1977. Paris spent about four months in late 2016 and early 2017 with a telescope pointed at comet 266P, and found strong signals of the same type as the Wow! signal.
Paris also examined several other similar comets and found the same type of hydrogen cloud and the same type of signal, which means that even if comet 266P wasn't the specific source of the Wow! signal, another comet is most likely the culprit.
This is bad news for anyone holding out hope that the Wow! signal would be aliens, but it's a solid conclusion to one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy. Now that we know comets can create these otherworldly signals, any future signals we get will have to be vetted much more carefully.
The Wow! signal was detected by a radio telescope in Ohio in 1977 as a 72 second-long burst of powerful radio waves during a project searching for alien signals. It earned its name after astronomer Dr Jerry Ehman circled the signal data and wrote' Wow!' in the margin (pictured)
THE STORY OF THE 'WOW!' SIGNAL
The Wow! signal was detected on 15 August 1977 with a radio telescope known as Big Ears at the Ohio State University Radio Observatory in Delaware.
Dr Ehman, who had been working on a project for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, noticed the surprisingly strong signal in a column of alphanumerical data.
With a red pen he scrawled the word 'Wow!' in the margin and circled the sequence.
Astronomers ruled out that the signal came from Earth and could find nothing in our solar system to have produced it.
It is thought to have come from a region of space to the northwest of the globular galaxy cluster M55 in the constellation Sagittarius.
Although Dr Ehman himself has remained skeptical, the signal has led to claims that it may have been a radio beacon or broadcast coming from far beyond our own solar system.
Source: The Center for Planetary Science
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