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Has the 40-year Old Mystery of the 'Wow!' Signal Been Solved? (newatlas.com)
"Astronomers have confirmed that the Wow! signal, thought to be the most promising detection by SETI of alien life, was actually caused by a comet," writes schwit1. New Atlas reports:
Last year, a group of researchers from the Center of Planetary Science proposed a new hypothesis that argued a comet might be the culprit. The frequency could be caused by the hydrogen cloud they carry, and the fact that they move accounts for why it seemingly disappeared. Two comets, named 266/P Christensen and P/2008 Y2 (Gibbs), happened to be transiting through that region of space when the Wow! signal was detected, but they weren't discovered until after 2006. To test the hypothesis, the team made 200 radio spectrum observations between November 2016 and February 2017. Sure enough, 266/P Christensen was found to emit radio waves at a frequency of 1,420 MHz, and to double check, the researchers moved their radio telescope by one degree. As expected, the signal vanished, and only returned when the telescope was trained back on the comet.
So it's a moving object that is emitting a signal at 1420 MHz. I'm not sure how that changes anything.
Less than a month till we have to defend our planet! July 4th!
They should rename the comet after the first observers, even if it was in radio waves.
Maybe some poor bastard's been stuck on that comet for the last 40 years.
since the Aliens program them that way
comets dont have radios
So we thought that aliens were just emitting radio signals and we now discover that they are actually sending us comets.
Very, very impressive.
http://naapo.org/WOWCometRebuttal.html
Did some Republican secretly fund a military mission to place a transmitter on it?
Title: Has the mystery been solved?
Summary: The mystery has been solved!
Article: Researches have a hypothesis about the mystery.
Slashdot desperately needs some editors to check submissions before they make the front page.
So the aliens are riding a comet into our system to observe the planet now that we have near space monitoring systems.
The premise behind SETI have never been detection of a signal specifically directed at us, but the hypothesis that an alien civilization would likely go through a period of its evolution during which its technology would create a radiosphere, much like our own, that would radiate into space and would be perfectly distinguishable from other natural radio phenomena. By the way, after creating, in that period, one too many Howard Sterns, they would have gone radio-silent, and would be in that state to the present day.
Have gnu, will travel.
A comet is a carriage of the Gods, so the God/Goddess sent a SMS on his iPhone and SETI was unable to decrypt it. My guess is: "Honey, can you pick up some milk and did you see little Mellanie's jodpurs?".
Aliens have lawyers too, and we haven't paid for the rights to those messages.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Nobody's asked the question yet, so I, Anonymous Coward will.
What kind of natural phenomenon would cause a comet - an icy chunk of rock - emit radio waves at 1420MHz specifically and not at other frequencies?
My takeaway is that all comets are equipped with natural trackers transmitting at 1420 MHz and we can map their trajectories from afar, much sooner then they appear bright. It could be significant for Earth protection.
I wonder if we can detect other (E)TNOs using this frequency?
In space, no one can hear you say "Wow!"
Betteridge says no.
This technology (a radio telescope) is being obsolete.
If they had seen UFOs or visited Area 51 then they did not need this obsolete technology because they had the easiest way to contact them.
In my opinion, there is much secret-ism to protect them (extraterrestrials welcomed to the Earth). Do you understand me that i'm talking about it?.
It seems that several technologies (that we have) are due to them (the ETs) and maintained secretly.
We just learned that it's the earth that goes around the sun. Sssssss.
NASA and other's has been picking up all types of spectrum from things flying through space and planets.
We know what AM/FM/short band and Ham radio is and is not.
** The signal was not a "normal" signal.
Maybe they were communicating or using advanced scanners.
** We could of detected an advanced form of scanners or part of com.
Base rate for humans running around with their hair on fire over some anomaly that later proved to be something entirely different: ludicrous speed.
Base rate for humans inventing various super-beings and spirits and pseudo-species out of whole cloth: surely nothing to sneeze at.
Number of star systems beaming fake intergalactic news at ever higher levels of transmission power until crystal diodes are exploding everywhere: zero (give or take).
Furtive space aliens on a "two hour cruise" who chanced into near-earth proximity at any point in the last 1000 years: well, you just never know.
so the sounds come from a rock,