Mystery Of The "Wow!" Signal Solved?

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rgMekanic

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After 40 years the mystery of the "Wow!" signal may have been found, and the answer is a bit disappointing. A little history, In August 1977, the Ohio State's "Big Ear" Observatory picked up a radio transmission from the Sagittarius constellation that was so strong it inspired the astronomer who discovered it to write "Wow!" in the margin of the data printout. It was, and is the only signal ever found that meets the stringent criteria of possible intelligent origin.

A team of researchers from Center of Planetary Science proposed a hypothesis that a comet might be the source. After testing they found that a comet does emit radio waves at the same frequency of the "Wow!" signal.

Quite disappointing to me, even though it's not unexpected. This signal was the first, and still is largest find for the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program, and has helped push the program much further. SETI and the "Wow!" signal gave birth to distributed computing as we know it, starting with SETI@Home and later turning into BOINC; and I fondly remember staring at the classic SETI@Home visuals hoping to find the next "Wow!"

Based on the work of earlier astronomers, the team determined that a message of intelligent origin would most likely be transmitted at a frequency of 1,420 MHz – the electromagnetic frequency of hydrogen – and that the Big Ear would "hear" it for 72 seconds, since that's how long the observatory could focus on one specific point in space.
 
Maybe not the answer we wanted but science is a fickle mistress when it comes to hopes in aiming for the correct answer.

(now if only politicians did that).
 
If there was intelligent life? They would want to keep it a secret until we are mature enough.
 
SETI as a project was doomed from the start. It is based on a premise that we have absolutely zero proof for: that advanced civilizations will continue to use radio AND that said radio will be detectable by our receivers.

There are two major flaws with that assumption:

1) There is no guarantee that an advanced civilization will continue to use radio frequencies we can receive even if they were right next to us. I would expect any sufficiently advanced civilization to have found better solutions than radio. Plausible for them to still use radio waves, but no guarantees. Also frequencies could exceed our capabilities to receive. We have some very complex ULF devices that they wouldnt have imagined of for the first radios...not to mention all of the other advances and how fine we can tune a frequency now.

2) Even for primitive ones or advanced using radio there is no guarantee that radio waves in the frequencies we are listening to will survive interstellar distances. It completely ignores the inverse square law and the fact that space is not a true vacuum but is instead a medium with many particles in it that will degrade the signal over time and distance. Furthermore radio is line of sight...and over the course of distance we will see diffraction in the signal, changes in its wavelength, dispersion, and more. Here is an interesting read on some effects: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...59A2D89D6DBF54990AF429CF9C1CF7.ip-10-40-1-105

So SETI is shooting for that one in a trillion trillion chance that a signal will make it through AND that we will be able to recognize it. Pretty long odds. Dont get me wrong I still think we should be listening. If nothing else we learn a lot about how to listen and find other things as by products but I dont expect us to ever actually find any signals. I fully expect we will discover, or be discovered, "aliens" by other means.

On the the other hand given the low probability of receiving any signal there exists the chance, slim, that we already got a signal and dont even know it. We might have thrown it away as noise! And we never will because the odds of re intercepting that signal are so low....
 
Any civilization advanced enough could easily make a signal look like a comet. :)

Either way, its about discovery and shows why its the search that matters.
 
Until they receive a very clear message saying "All of the hot women you desire, without the luggage", I'm not interested.
 
So does this mean that we have been listening on the wrong channel, 1,420 MHz, for the past several decades? Any advanced aliens know that comets transmit on that freq and will use some other freq, perhaps an element with a half life of second or less. Unlikely to occur in nature but should be recognizable to advanced recipients.
 
kju1 said:
SETI as a project was doomed from the start. It is based on a premise that we have absolutely zero proof for: that advanced civilizations will continue to use radio AND that said radio will be detectable by our receivers.

There are two major flaws with that assumption:

1) There is no guarantee that an advanced civilization will continue to use radio frequencies we can receive even if they were right next to us. I would expect any sufficiently advanced civilization to have found better solutions than radio. Plausible for them to still use radio waves, but no guarantees. Also frequencies could exceed our capabilities to receive. We have some very complex ULF devices that they wouldnt have imagined of for the first radios...not to mention all of the other advances and how fine we can tune a frequency now.

2) Even for primitive ones or advanced using radio there is no guarantee that radio waves in the frequencies we are listening to will survive interstellar distances. It completely ignores the inverse square law and the fact that space is not a true vacuum but is instead a medium with many particles in it that will degrade the signal over time and distance. Furthermore radio is line of sight...and over the course of distance we will see diffraction in the signal, changes in its wavelength, dispersion, and more. Here is an interesting read on some effects: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...59A2D89D6DBF54990AF429CF9C1CF7.ip-10-40-1-105

So SETI is shooting for that one in a trillion trillion chance that a signal will make it through AND that we will be able to recognize it. Pretty long odds. Dont get me wrong I still think we should be listening. If nothing else we learn a lot about how to listen and find other things as by products but I dont expect us to ever actually find any signals. I fully expect we will discover, or be discovered, "aliens" by other means.

On the the other hand given the low probability of receiving any signal there exists the chance, slim, that we already got a signal and dont even know it. We might have thrown it away as noise! And we never will because the odds of re intercepting that signal are so low....
Click to expand...
Since we don't have/know advanced communication at this time, we have to use what we have? Simple logic.
SETI is waiting for that one chance? Well since space is sorta big and vast that is about all we have right now?
 
One step further away from aliens having blown up the Space-X rocket.
 
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