New Research on the Famous Wow! Signal Thinks It Has Found the Source

On August 15th, 1977, astronomer Jerry Ehman, working on the SETI project in Ohio, detected for the first and last time (at least officially) a 72-second signal coming from outer space. This event, known as the "Wow! Signal," was monumental and garnered significant attention.

SETI (Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence) was established in the late 1970s at NASA’s Ames Research Center and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The goal was to examine stars and attempt to detect intelligent signals from space. However, NASA ceased involvement in the project about two decades later.

During that fateful day in 1977, the "Big Ear" radio telescope at the Ohio State University Radio Observatory detected an ‘intelligent’ signal coming from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The signal lasted seventy-two seconds at a frequency of 1420.4056 MHz. Jerry Ehman famously scribbled "Wow!" on the computer printout, forever branding the signal with its memorable name.

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The Big Ear Observatory, on the grounds of Ohio Wesleyan University, operated from 1963-1998. It was part of Ohio State University’s long-running Search for Extraterrestrial (SETI) program. The observatory was torn down in 1998 to make room for a golf course. (Bigear.org / NAAPO)

The Wow! Signal was observed in a very narrow band of frequencies (less than 10kHz), and analysis confirmed that it originated outside our solar system. At its peak, the signal was more than 30 times stronger than the background noise, remaining constant within a 10-second observing window. Despite months of focused observation on the constellation Sagittarius, the signal was never detected again.

One of the intriguing aspects of the Wow! Signal is that it appeared at the frequency of 1420.4056 MHz, which corresponds to the neutral hydrogen line. As Ehman suggested, it would make sense for an alien civilization to use this frequency for communication, given hydrogen's abundance in the universe.

For years, the Wow! Signal remained an enigmatic piece of potential evidence for extraterrestrial life, with many arguing that the events were not random, man-made, or mere reflections from objects in space. The lack of a repeated signal, however, left the signal's purpose and exact origin a mystery. Had such a signal been detected today, with modern technology, we might have been able to glean much more information.

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New Analysis: A Natural Explanation

Recent findings, however, have cast doubt on the extraterrestrial origin of the Wow! Signal. A new analysis conducted by scientists from the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo suggests that the signal may have been the result of a natural phenomenon rather than an alien transmission.

The researchers propose that the Wow! Signal was likely caused by a powerful natural laser, or maser, produced by a rare alignment between a collapsed star and a cloud of cool hydrogen. This maser could have been triggered by intense energy from a neutron star, specifically a type known as a magnetar, colliding with a hydrogen cloud. This interaction would produce a powerful burst of microwave energy at the 1420 MHz frequency, resembling the Wow! Signal.

Professor Abel Méndez and his team came to this conclusion having detected a series of similar, though fainter, signals in data from the Arecibo Observatory's Radio Emissions from Red Dwarf Stars (REDS) project. These signals, particularly those originating from the nearby red dwarf star Teegarden's Star, provided key insights into the potential natural origins of the Wow! Signal.

Teegarden's Star, just 12.5 light-years from Earth, is surrounded by clouds of cool atomic hydrogen. When intense light from the star hits these hydrogen clouds, they can produce a maser burst similar to the Wow! Signal. The researchers suggest that the original Wow! Signal could have been an even more powerful maser burst caused by a magnetar aligning with a hydrogen cloud.

Given the rarity of such an alignment, this explanation also accounts for why the signal has never been detected again. If true, this theory challenges the notion that the Wow! Signal is evidence of alien life, instead suggesting it was the first recorded astronomical maser flare in the hydrogen line.

In their paper, published on arXiv, Professor Méndez and his colleagues emphasize that while this hypothesis accounts for all observed characteristics of the Wow! Signal, it introduces another potential source of false positives in the search for techno-signatures. They plan to continue analyzing archival data from the Arecibo Observatory to further explore this phenomenon.

Top image: A scan of a color copy of the original computer printout, taken several years after the 1977 arrival of the Wow! signal.        Source: Big Ear Radio Observatory and North American AstroPhysical Observatory (NAAPO)/ Public Domain

By Gary Manners