One explanation which has been receiving some publicity lately hinges on the fact that two dim comets were near the location of the site of the signal at the time it was recorded. However, these tend to be broad emissions, frequency-wise, which runs counter to the narrow frequency width of the signal. or the then-Soviet Union, or elsewhere, might have been responsible.Īs for natural explanations, quite a few objects in space, both in our galaxy and beyond, give off radiation in the radio part of the spectrum – including, especially, at the frequency of 1.42 gigahertz where the signal was recorded, as this is a strong frequency of hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe. Thus far, however, no potential culprit has been identified, although it is entirely conceivable that a still-classified military spacecraft from the U.S. A satellite in low-Earth orbit would have been traveling too fast to have remained in the telescope’s viewing window for the full duration, and some kind of reflection from a ground-based transmission would seem to be extremely unlikely given the dynamics involved, however a transmission from a more distant object would seem to be a reasonable possibility. The signal’s resemblance to what one would expect of an artificially made transmission suggests that it may well have been human-made in origin. We are thus left with a brief one-time incident that took place almost four decades ago. Unfortunately, despite over 50 attempts to detect the signal again with the Big Ear telescope, it was never recorded again, and numerous attempts by other radio telescopes all over the world have also failed to record it. One of the most important parts of the verification process would be reproducibility. Part of this process would be the elimination of other potential, and more likely, explanations. However, the dictum extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence – popularized a few decades ago by American astronomer Carl Sagan, although similar thoughts appear in the writings of the18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume – would certainly apply here. Given all this, it is tempting to conclude that the Wow! signal might indeed be the result of a radio transmission by an intelligent civilization. Furthermore, the signal is very narrow in its frequency range, something that might be expected for a signal of artificial origin. This is precisely what the telescope recorded. Due to that rotation, any stationary signal in space would have been within view of the radio receiver for 72 seconds, and would have started off weak, reached a maximum in strength half-way through that interval, and then decreased back to a weak level before leaving the viewing window. What makes the Wow! signal so unique is not only its strength, but the fact that its shape on the printout is exactly what one would expect for an artificial signal emitted in deep space, affected by the Earth’s rotation. This has been known as the “Wow! signal” ever since. The signal was so strong, and so unique in its characteristics, that Ehman circled the printout’s depiction of the signal and wrote “Wow!” next to it. 15 of that year when he noticed an extremely strong signal that had been recorded by the telescope. In the summer of 1977 an astronomer volunteering for the project, Jerry Ehman, was examining computer printouts of data taken on Aug. The longest-running SETI effort to date was initiated during the early 1970s by Ohio State University, utilizing a 300-foot wide Big Ear radio telescope located near Delaware, Ohio, and continued until 1998, when the Big Ear telescope was torn down to make way for a housing development and golf course. The entire SETI effort makes numerous assumptions about the biological and technological evolution of any intelligent race of aliens, as well as about behaviors they might exhibit, and would appear to have, at best, a minimal chance of success however, given the vast distances between stars, it would still seem to be the most likely means by which any such civilization might be detected. Primarily, this is taken to be radio, although other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum have also been investigated. The mystery has its origins in the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, effort which, as this name implies, is the attempt to detect extraterrestrial civilizations, if they exist, by means of any emissions they might give out. This summer marks the 40th anniversary of one of the more interesting unsolved mysteries in astronomy.
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