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Has the 40-year Old Mystery of the 'Wow!' Signal Been Solved? (newatlas.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the truth-is-out-there dept.

"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.

9 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Very advanced aliens by GuB-42 · · Score: 4, Funny

    So we thought that aliens were just emitting radio signals and we now discover that they are actually sending us comets.
    Very, very impressive.

  2. No, no it wasn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://naapo.org/WOWCometRebuttal.html

    1. Re:No, no it wasn't by H3lldr0p · · Score: 4, Informative

      That would seem to cover everything.

      Everyone! Pack it in. We still have a mystery to solve.

    2. Re:No, no it wasn't by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sometimes, pedantry can be good. You really have to have backup. Remember this.

  3. WTF Who wrote this? by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. Re:Did they try to decode the message? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    They did - it just said "be sure to drink your Ovaltine".

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  5. Re: Solved? by KGIII · · Score: 4, Funny

    At this point. I have heard all sots of excuses for it. It has never been repeated. The odds of it being from an intelligent source, are REALLY fucking low. If they were gonna send us something, they'd probably send something with more bits, unless they figured we could (and would) decode it from that. Dunno but I bet any aliens sending messages aren't stupid. They're gonna make it easy to decode. Call it a hunch...

    Yeah, just a hunch... I could be wrong and an advanced alien species could be sending messages but making them difficult to decrypt because they're just jerks like that. Damned aliens.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  6. Re:Comets do that by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Funny

    since the Aliens program them that way

    I wonder if they spew chemtrails as well?

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  7. They were busy ... by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... working on the "Meh" signal.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.