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Alien 'Wow!' Signal Could Be Explained After Almost 40 Years (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader cites a report on The Guardian: A former analyst with the US Department of Defence is on the trail of a 'cold case' -- an unexplained signal that some believe could have come from extraterrestrials. Way back in 1977 something amazing happened. Astronomer Jerry Ehman was using the Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope to sweep the sky for possible signals from extraterrestrial civilisations. He found something. While pointing towards a grouping of stars called Chi Sagittarii on 15 August, he received a powerful blast of radio waves that lasted for 72 seconds. He circled it on the readout and wrote: "Wow!" Analysis of the signal showed that it displayed all the hallmarks of coming from interstellar space, and it became something of a cause celebre for those involved in SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The trouble is that despite numerous attempts, the signal has never been observed again and so remains unexplained. Until now perhaps, thanks to the work of Professor Antonio Paris of St Petersburg College, Florida. Known as 266P/Christensen and 335P/Gibbs, they have never been investigated before because they were only discovered in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Paris found that they were both in the vicinity of Chi Sagittarii on the day that the 'Wow!' signal was detected. This could be significant because comets are surrounded by clouds of hydrogen gas that are millions of kilometres in diameter. Comet 266P/Christensen will pass the Chi Sagittarii star group again on 25 January 2017, while 335P/Gibbs will make its passage on 7 January 2018. Paris plans to observe these events to look for a recurrence of the mystery signal.In some other news, cosmologist and theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking says he doesn't expect the humanity to find intelligent alien life for at least another 20 years.
or we just posting things that could happen? like... slashdot could actually have a good article, the sky could fall, aliens could exist etc...
Since the summary failed to state the new hypothesis, here goes:
Professor Antonio Paris believes that the signal was generated by two comets which were discovered in 2006 and 2008. They were both in the vicinity of Chi Sagittarii when the Wow! signal was emitted. Both of these comets are surrounded by a cloud of hydrogen gas, which emits signals at a frequency of 1420MHz (the same as the Wow! signal).
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
It's probably a comet - signature matches a lot of hydrogen, and a couple of nearby comets fit the bill with their unusually massive clouds of it.
Alien 'Wow!' Signal Could Be Explained After Almost 40 Years
And? You've explained what the signal was, but could you not even give a hint as to the possible explanation?
Okay, so I read up, and it's something to do with some comets. I don't get why the guy has to wait for them to be in the same patch of sky before testing his theory, though.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
It's just a viral media build up for the next Sharkanado.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It's an interesting explanation, but the problem with the signal being of extraterrestrial (as in alien) still applies with it being a result of natural phenomenon: There was no repeat. The SETI procedure is take the dish off the signal and try to require. If these comets were moving through the vicinity it would have been possible to reacquire the signal, or at least find some trace of it in that area of the sky.
I'm not saying that the hypothesis shouldn't be tested, but even if these comets are the source of the signal it is a bit strange that they emitted such a powerful signal once...and made no other indicators afterwards.
Now, an important point that everyone else has already said but should be repeated: When you're writing the abstract for an article, be sure to include the major highlights of the article. That includes proposals, findings, etc. It's the exact opposite of the "Spoilers" system.
IANAAP, but i suspect the argument goes like this: if you're pointing a radio telescope at a comet you actually point it at the comet and take observations from the comet, you're not paying attention to any stars that happen to be near it because that's not what you're trying to observe. What is theorized to have happened in this case is that they were taking observations from the star as a comet passed in front of it, and the signal from the star was presumably modulated (or whatever the correct technical jargon is) by the comet's atmosphere, producing a signal you would not see when looking at either a comet or a star alone.
The fact that it hasn't happened many other times despite there being a lot of comets around is that space is big. You just won't believe how etc, etc.
It's a pretty simple theory and it's pretty easy to test, the only difficulty being actually getting telescope time. The only reason other astronomers are complaining is because they don't want to give up their own telescope time combined with the usual in-field competitiveness.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
What is missing here? Please fix the summary.
On another hand, if this hypothesis worth enough and there is any doubt about it, the scientific community would free some observation time on the existing radiotelescopes to find out. So, being not the case, I conclude either the scientific community believes it doesn't worth to verify because the strength of the signal can be computed for the two comets, the hypothesis can then be checked numerically and an observation will not add any thing new, either it believes this hypothesis is very unlikely and not a valid explanation. In both case, I will pass my turn and not fund this. I already fund the other radiotelescopes from my taxes.
Achille Talon
Hop!
for them to find intelligent life on this planet...
Stephen Hawking should stick to hard science because he doesn't know what the fuck he is talking about. Namely:
* "He doesn't know what other people DO know."
Gee, if only we had credible, witnesses,
The problem with (official) "First Contact" is that will cause MORE problems then it will solve. :-/ Everything from Mathematics, Money, Religion, Science will need to be re-evaluated. Most people are not ready to have their false belief system blown apart.
Proof will be given in ~2024 when we can end these stupid discussion once and for all and focus on the more important issues like why is most of life bipedal humanoid in the galaxy? Why were humans genetically engineered? Why is Earth one of the only few places with Free Will ?
--
If animals can live millions of years on Earth without money, why can't stupid humans?
When I was about 7 years old Jerry Ehman rode down to Kentucky with us in the family station wagon from Powell, Ohio to Kentucky to go spelunking. We lived a few houses down the street from the assistant director of the Big Ear radio observatory who organized the trip and who invited along coworkers and friends. All the radio observatory guys on the trip were full-time radio geeks, including Jerry, who brought his own CB radio on the trip and installed it in our car before we left. This was so we could keep in touch with the other vehicles on the drive down. Jerry had temporarily disconnected our am/fm car radio antenna to wire in his CB. So he is explaining this to me as my father drives down the highway to Kentucky. Being 7, of course I asked "but what if we want to listen to the radio?". Jerry, who was riding in the center of the front bench seat of the station wagon, replies that he can switch back and forth between them. Then he immediately inverts himself in the car seat with his feet up in the air and his head pushed up under the dashboard holding a handful of tools. A few minutes later the car radio is working again.
By the way, the radio observatory at which Jerry recorded the Wow! signal no longer exits. It was a joint project between Ohio State and Ohio Wesleyan universities. It was constructed and managed by the Ohio State University but located on land owned by Ohio Wesleyan University which sold it to developers to build a golf source. There was an international effort to preserve it, Nobel price winners and other notables campaigned for it. Wesleyan believed that a golf course was much more important than SETI. "Ignorant small-town hicks" would not go far enough to describe that school.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
The "wow" signal log page is currently on exhibit at the The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, across the street from the Berkeley campus. It's in an exhibit of modern art called "In Space". $12 admission.
Bruce Perens.
There is no theoretical objection to the prospect of finding extraterrestrial life, even if it is a needle-in-haystack sort of hunt. In contrast, the Jesus proposition requires an assumption that supernatural beings exist.
Bruce Perens.
It was a subspace signal from a starship.
The signal was at the far end of subspace radio range, and had fallen in energy state until it was readable in the RF spectrum.
The starship was moving, and only in range for a few seconds.
Duh.
and the signal from the star was presumably modulated (or whatever the correct technical jargon is) by the comet's atmosphere, producing a signal you would not see when looking at either a comet or a star alone.
That would have to be a hydrogen laser, which is unlikely, but a Hydrogen fluoride laser seems possible.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
BTW, I wrote the above--stupidly, I wasn't logged in.