Scientists may finally have an answer — or a partial one, at the very least — to the origin of one of the most famous interstellar radio signals ever intercepted. A new study says the “Wow!” signal, as many have called it since its discovery in 1977, may have originated from a star located in the constellation Sagittarius some 1,800 light-years away.
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Now, some researchers think the signal may simply be from a naturally occuring event, in comparison to something like an alien society trying to reach out and establish communications. According to a new piece from Live Science, astronomer Alberto Caballero says the signal likely happened without help from an intelligent civilization.
Astronomer Jerry Ehman first record the signal in 1977 during a time of research at Ohio State University’s Big Ear telescope. due to the length and strength, Ehman scribbled “Wow!” on a printout of the signal, giving it its name.
“I think this is perfectly worth doing because we want to point our instruments in the direction of things we think are interesting,” historian Rebecca Charbonneau recently told Live Science about the signal. “There are billions of stars in the galaxy, and we have to figure out some way to narrow them down.”
She added, “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the point in human history where we start putting intelligent signals in space is also the same point in history where we get the idea to look for intelligent signals from space.”
In an updated report in 2010, Ehman still held out hope the signal could be an alien civilization reaching out.
“Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, there is good logic in guessing that an intelligent civilization within our Milky Way galaxy desirous of attracting attention to itself might broadcast a strong narrowband beacon signal at or near the frequency of the neutral hydrogen line,” he wrote in his anniversary report at the time.
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Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios
