Wow! mystery signal from space finally explained

Big Update

Back in August of 1977, a team of astronomers studying radio transmissions from an observatory at Ohio State called the "Big Ear" recorded an unusual 72-second signal—it was so strong that team member Jerry Ehman scrawled "Wow!" next to the readout. Since that time, numerous scientists have searched for an explanation of the signal, but until now, no one could offer a valid argument. Possible sources such as asteroids, exo-planets, stars and even signals from Earth have all been ruled out. Some outside the science community even suggested that it was proof of aliens. It was noted that the frequency was transmitted at 1,420 MHz, though, which happens to be the same frequency as hydrogen.

The explanation started to come into focus last year when a team at the CPS [Center of Planetary Science] suggested that the signal might have come from a hydrogen cloud accompanying a comet—additionally, the movement of the comet would explain why the signal was not seen again. The team noted that two comets had been in the same part of the sky that the Big Ear was monitoring on the fateful day. Those comets, P/2008 Y2(Gibbs) and 266/P Christensen had not yet been discovered [at the time the WOW! signal was recorded]. The team then got a chance to test their idea as the two comets appeared once again in the night sky from November 2016 through February of 2017.

...

The team reports that radio signals from 266/P Christensen matched those from the Wow! signal 40 years ago.

phys.org, June 7, 2017 - Wow! mystery signal from space finally explained.

Another ATS thread - The Wow! Signal From 1977.

And sorry Justin!!!

The answer is "comets." "Comets."

They left the "Big Ear" recording over night. The next day while reading the readout "6EQUJ5" was circled in red indicating the duration and strength of the signal. And "WOW!" was added in the margin for others to see when they reviewed the readout. Now just known as the "The WOW! Signal" this has been an open question. Like other science stories that are left open, anybody can come along and create a theory.

It now looks like the case is closed.

Two previous unknown comets re-appeared, as comets are wont to do, and a theory was put to the test. The signal's frequency matched what could be out gassing of hydrogen from a comet. Upon further review it turned out to be one of the two. Well, the scientists say they cannot be certain it was actually THAT specific comet but they are pretty certain, they said, "relative assurance" that [the WOW! signal] was made by a comet. (same source)

Makes sense it was a natural occurrence. Bummer that it was not something more "out there" because I want to believe!

How does this make you feel ATS?

Good science? TPTB keeping us in the dark with a cover story? Bummed out that it was not the Millennium Falcon making it's way to earth? *points* "Ha, HA!"? My tin foil hat Spidey sense is tingling? Where's the new read out?! Others?

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

I didn't know hydrogen could be read as a radio signal.

I wonder if our thermonuclear warheads are likewise detectable from that far out.

Well that's disappointing.

At least now we can be pretty sure we know what it was and move on to other things. Still a big universe out there to look at, record and measure.

They should change the name from "WOW!" signal to "HEAVY SIGH" signal now that they have apparently determined an actual natural source and it had nothing to do with ET.

Knew it we are now chasing comet farts
Text

They make it sound as if they are 100% sure it was a comet. However the quote makes it sounds like they are only pretty sure so we can't say with 100% fact, but i can be misunderstanding the reaction. Did I ever think it was ET, no i've always said it was some natural cause so guess a comet would be around what ive said for ages.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
How does this make you feel ATS?

Science:

1. Getting us excited about the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
2. Killing our buzz by proving to us just how unlikely it really is.

a reply to: Abysha

That is a good question! (re: thermo nukes being visible) Honestly, IDK.

In radio and electronics, an antenna (plural antennae or antennas), or aerial, is an electrical device which converts electric power into radio waves, and vice versa.

Wikipedia

It is that interpretation of the radio frequency (like what radio station you're listening to) that determines what chemical or chemicals you are seeing. They can do the same with visible light (light spectra) but radio waves travel further.

a reply to: watchitburn

Yeah, and I think that when the James Webb Space Telescope gets up and running we are going to be blown away by how little we know about universe!

a reply to: seattlerat

LOL. Or, the "Awwww SH#! signal"

POP!!


Bubble....................................

Burst

a reply to: Blue Shift

The void that contains the Milky Way, known as the KBC void for Keenan, Barger and the University of Hawaii's Lennox Cowie, is at least seven times as large as the average, with a radius measuring roughly 1 billion light years. To date, it is the largest void known to science. Hoscheit's new analysis, according to Barger, shows that Keenan's first estimations of the KBC void, which is shaped like a sphere with a shell of increasing thickness made up of galaxies, stars and other matter, are not ruled out by other observational constraints.

phys.org - Celestial boondocks: Study supports the idea we live in a void.

We, the Milky Way, live in a void surrounded by clusters and superclusters. Science can also explain where "they" are. We are in rural Kansas and they're in London.

I guess if we are going to live in a hole might as well be the biggest hole in the known universe!





a reply to: CaptainBeno

See story above!

(< --- here are some more bubbles for you!)

So WOW just became Meh

if Carl Sagan was alive he would have been so disappointed

Hopes deflated by a hydrogen belch...

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
We are in rural Kansas and they're in London.

And in-between is a blistering hell of charged particles in a near vacuum.

I guess if we are going to live in a hole might as well be the biggest hole in the known universe!

And as I sometimes say, there may be living intelligent creatures way out there in the vastness of space, but if we never prove they exist or have any practical interaction with them, they're essentially fictional.

a reply to: SaturnFX

What wicked memes may come!

a reply to: Dr UAE

Yeah, that is sad. Just the idea itself has sparked investigations like Tabby's star.

a reply to: Odyssian

That is just one. We'll find more.

a reply to: Blue Shift

We do live on a wet, rocky blob in the universe's largest void. Maybe we need a roadside attraction like the World's Largest Ball of Twine or something.

Roswell, come for the desert but stay for the conspiracy theory!

Like doom porn, something else will come along.

a reply to: Abysha

Hydrogen Read as a Radio Signal

I had a conversation in the break room with an ex-Navy guy and he got me wondering the same thing.

The alphanumeric sequence circled by Ehman, 6EQUJ5, represents the intensity variation of the radio signal over time, measured as unitless signal-to-noise ratio and ranging from 0 to 36, with the noise averaged over the previous few minutes. Each individual character corresponds to a sample of the signal, taken every 12 seconds. A whitespace character on the printout denotes an intensity between 0 and 1; the numbers "1" to "9" denote the correspondingly numbered intensities (from 1 to 9); intensities of 10 and above are indicated by a letter: "A" corresponds to intensities between 10 and 11, "B" to 11 to 12, and so on. The highest measured value was "U" (an intensity between 30 and 31), that is thirty times stronger than normal background noise.

A common misconception is that the Wow! signal constitutes some sort of message. In fact, what was received appears to be an unmodulated, continuous wave signal with no encoded information; essentially a flash of radio energy. The string "6EQUJ5" is merely the representation of the expected variation of signal intensity over time, expressed in the particular measuring system adopted for the experiment.

Wikipedia: WOW! signal.

They compared "white noise" or just the common back ground noise versus intensity in that frequency range (hydrogen). If it changes, they knew there was something there making that noise. The 72-seconds is very interesting. The antenna was fixed and did not rotate. They pointed it at a certain height above the horizon and watched as the earth rotated around. They could only view one patch of sky for a total of 72 seconds!

As the earth rotated around, it ran across two unknown comets. The antenna was split (had two horns) and only one picked up the signal (variation against background).

Technically, they discovered the comets in 1977!

Really tho this is scientist we,re talking about,everything they tell us we should expect change in that just like europa? enceladous? pluto? infact just about everything, they are trying to explain it and looking at what they know,doesn,t mean they are right,means it works to their theory until their proved wrong.

The fact that the WOW signal was in the Hydrogen "spin flip" frequency should have been a major telling that it's a natural event. en.wikipedia.org...



What's unusual is that this kind of radiation usually happens very slowly, little bit by little bit, in the interstellar hydrogen clouds. It's the first time I hear that this type of radiation could happen in a brief flash.

a reply to: Abysha

I didn't know hydrogen could be read as a radio signal.

Hydrogen atoms that have been ‘excited’ by the addition of energy emit that energy in the form of electromagnetic waves (radio waves or more accurately microwaves) of wavelength 21cm.

I’m surprised you don’t know this if you have any interest at all in astronomy. The 21-cm band is one of the most important for radio astronomers, precisely because hydrogen is the commonest element in the Universe.

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: Abysha

I didn't know hydrogen could be read as a radio signal.

I’m surprised you don’t know this if you have any interest at all in astronomy.

I don't. That's why I asked.