For decades, astronomers and researchers have tried to explain this mysterious signal.
Him August of 1977one scan for extraterrestrial signals gave one of the most puzzling findings in research on extraterrestrial life.
For more than a minute, the Big Ear radio telescopeoperated by Ohio State University, recorded a strange emission coming from a region near the constellation Sagittarius. The signal was recorded as 30 times stronger than normal space noise.
The most interesting aspect of this signal was its frequency: 1,420 megahertz. This frequency is important because it corresponds to its natural emission frequency hydrogenthe most abundant element in the universe. The fact that the signal appeared at such a precise frequency has led some astronomers to speculate that it may have been deliberately chosen by an extraterrestrial civilization to communicate with Earth.
The enigmatic transmission was subsequently named “badge Wow!,” after astronomer Jerry Ehman, who analyzed the data, wrote “Wow!» in print. In the nearly 50 years since that fateful discovery, the “Wow!” remained an enigma, with no similar signals ever detected again.
For decades, astronomers and researchers have tried to explain this mysterious signal. Despite numerous hypotheses, none have convincingly explained the signal as a natural phenomenon. This lack of explanation has led many to insist on the possibility that the “Wow!” could be our first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence.
However, a new theory has emerged which potentially offers a more substantiated explanation for the anomaly – and it doesn’t involve alien life. Abel Méndez, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico, has suggested that the “Wow!” it may be the result of a rare cosmic event.
Méndez and his team suggest that a dense, magnetic star, known as a magnetar, could have produced a powerful flare that hit a cold, interstellar cloud of hydrogen gas. This collision, they argue, would have caused the hydrogen cloud to emit radiation at the exact frequency detected by the Big Ear telescope.
“This is a very rare event”, Méndez explained in an interview with LiveScience. “I’m still amazed that [οι αστρονόμοι] they were able to detect it».
Researchers developed this groundbreaking hypothesis after stumbling upon eight signals similar to the signal while analyzing old data from the now-defunct Arecibo Observatory. Recorded between February and May 2020, these signals lasted two to three minutes each and had frequencies close to the 1,420 megahertz of the “Wow!” signal.
Although this new hypothesis could provide a plausible explanation for the signal “Wow!”, does not completely close the case.
