Credit score: Massive Ear Radio Telescope
Considered as one of many oddest radio transmissions from afar ever detected, the well-known “Wow! Sign” is cited as compelling proof for extraterrestrial intelligence.
It was again in 1977 that the Ohio State College Massive Ear radio telescope detected the Wow! Sign, a long-standing and intriguing sign of extraterrestrial origin.
However researchers from the Planetary Habitability Laboratory on the College of Puerto Rico at Arecibo are proposing a much less ETish clarification.
Picture credit score: UCLA SETI
Archived knowledge
New analysis, led by Abel Méndez, marks the primary part of the “Arecibo Wow!” mission, an bold endeavor to seek for related alerts utilizing archived knowledge from the previous Arecibo Observatory.
The Wow! Sign might have been attributable to a singular astrophysical occasion. They level to the sudden brightening of a chilly hydrogen cloud as a consequence of stimulated emission from a transient sturdy radiation supply, resembling a magnetar flare or a smooth gamma repeater (SGR).
These uncommon occasions may trigger hydrogen clouds to momentarily shine a lot brighter, doubtlessly explaining the fleeting nature of the Wow! Sign.
Picture credit score: Arecibo Wow! Challenge
False positives
In line with the “Arecibo Wow!” mission web page, “this speculation not solely accounts for the distinctive traits of the Wow! Sign but in addition highlights a brand new supply of false positives within the seek for extraterrestrial technosignatures.”
Méndez provides that the examine means that the Wow! Sign was doubtless “the primary recorded occasion of maser-like emission of the hydrogen line.”
This speculation might redefine our understanding of such alerts, Méndez and colleagues assert, and information future searches for extraterrestrial life.
Picture credit score: SETI Submit-detection Hub
How this new cause for the Wow! Sign — doubtless attributable to a uncommon astrophysical occasion — receives its personal critique in scientific circles stays to be seen.
Go to the analysis paper — “Arecibo Wow! I: An Astrophysical Clarification for the Wow! Sign” — at:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2408.08513
In the meantime, for additional info, go to the Arecibo Wow! Challenge web page at:
Additionally, go to this informative video on the Wow! Sign at:
https://youtu.be/r6rPNPVQp0Y?si=1Ly_LhITW0x50c3m
