Odd 'Wow!' Radio Signal from Outer Space Explained ?

 

               Image of the 1977 computer print-out where the 'Wow' Signal was discovered.

                (Image Source: Smithsonian Magazine)

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

Scientists have now reported a possible explanation for an odd radio signal received from Outer Space in 1977. Originally described as the 'Wow!' Signal, some considered the possibility of a radio signal broadcast from an extraterrestrial civilization. Now, a more natural explanation has been proposed.

A strong narrow-band radio signal was detected on 1977 August 15 by the Big Ear Radio Telescope on the grounds of Perkins Observatory at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. Operated by the Ohio State University from 1963 to 1998, this radio telescope was part of the university's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project.

It was astronomer Jerry Ehman who discovered, what he referred to as the 'Wow!' Signal, on a computer print-out from automated observations the previous night. This intense and narrow transmission from Outer Space had lasted at least 72 seconds. On the print-out Mr. Ehman circled in bright red ink the series of letters and numbers that represented the unusual radio transmission. Then, he wrote next to the circled letters and numbers, in the margin: Wow!

In 1994, Mr. Ehman told newspaper reporter Barry Kawa, of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Without thinking, I wrote ‘Wow!' It was the most significant thing we had seen.”

Scientists considered this signal so unusual, because it was so intense and had a highly specific frequency. As this signal was similar to a natural radio transmission by hydrogen (Chemical symbol: H) atoms, this suggested that it was not a normal transmission from Outer Space. Of course, some people assumed that this may be a broadcast from an alien civilization. Actually, seeking such alien transmissions was one of the primary purposes of this Big Ear Radio Telescope.

However, on August 16 three scientists proposed an alternate explanation for the 'Wow!' Signal, published in a pre-print Internet web-site for academic papers which have not yet gone through the peer-review process: arXiv. These scientists propose that the 'Wow!' Signal may have been the result of a very rare event in Outer Space: the sudden brightening of a cold hydrogen cloud. As explained in Smithsonian Magazine: the scientists “suggest a strong source of energy, such as a flare from a super-magnetized, extremely dense star called a magnetar, could have struck a cloud of hydrogen gas and caused it to glow brighter. The cloud could have emitted a laser-like beam of radiation in a phenomenon called a maser.”

Past hypotheses held that the 'Wow!' Signal came from a passing comet or a star. These, somewhat controversial, explanations were soon dismissed by most scientists.

The lead author of this new research is Abel Mendez, a planetary astrobiologist and Director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory. His co-authors are Kevin Ortiz Ceballos of the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Jorge Zuluaga of the University of Antioquia in Colombia.

They analyzed archived data that had been collected using the huge Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. In 2020, this famous telescope was decommissioned and dismantled by the U.S. National Science Foundation, after the radio dish was damaged by two cable breaks which threatened the structural integrity of the support structure for the suspended platform.

This proposed explanation is not supported by all scientists. This is particularly true since the proposed explanation has never been observed in the Universe. So, the alien communication hypothesis has still not been completely dismissed.

Actually, the Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence by radio began exactly 100 years ago, last week. It was on 1924 August 21 that, under the urging of retired Massachusetts' Amherst College Astronomy Professor David Todd, U.S. Army and Navy radio stations, as well as the general public, started listening for radio messages from the planet Mars. Several years earlier, radio pioneers Nicola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi had reported receiving odd radio signals from Outer Space, which they thought could have come from Mars.

A century ago this-past week, Mars and Earth were closer than the two planets had been in many years. The Amherst astronomer thought this might be a time that Martians would try to contact Earth via radio.

By 1924, most scientists believed that Mars was too cold and dry to have human-like life, but not everyone else agreed. Businessman, author, and mathematician Percival Lowell, who had constructed an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona specifically to study Mars, had publicly promoted the idea that Martians had built canals to bring water from the poles to the rest of a dying planet. Hence, the general public was enthralled with the idea of intelligent life on Mars.

One hundred years ago, Dr. Todd had asked radio stations to go silent for five minutes each hour for several nights, to make it easier to hear the radio signals from Mars; only radio station WRC in Washington DC actually did so. However, other military, commercial, and amateur radio operators still listened for the extraterrestrial signals. And, a leading military cryptographer was made available to decode any messages from Mars.

There were a lot of radio signals received during this first SETI radio search, but the signals came from Earth or natural radio sources in the Universe. No message from Mars was ever detected.

Internet Links to Additional Information ----

'Wow!, Signal: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

Ohio State University Radio Observatory (former home of Big Ear Radio Telescope):

Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_University_Radio_Observatory

Arecibo Radio Telescope: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Telescope

Related Blog-Post ---

"50th Anniversary: Kecksburg, Pa. "UFO" Incident." Wed., 2015 Dec. 9.

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2015/12/50th-anniversary-kecksburg-pa-ufo.html

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss     

               "Odd 'Wow!' Radio Signal from Outer Space Explained ?"

                  Monday, 2024 August 26.

            Artificial Intelligence not used in the writing or production of this article.

            © Copyright 2024 Glenn A. Walsh, All Rights Reserved

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Glenn A. Walsh, Informal Science Educator & Communicator                                                             (For more than 50 years! - Since Monday Morning, 1972 June 12):
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Formerly Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer, original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), America's fifth major planetarium and Pittsburgh's science & technology museum from 1939 to 1991.
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