Scientists may have pinpointed the origin of the Wow! Signal, the most famous alien radio broadcast in history, by studying a star similar to our own Sun.
The Wow! Signal was detected at the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University on August 15, 1977, and was noted by astronomer Jerry R. Ehman as “Wow!”.
The sequence in question refers to a signal intensity variation, not a message broadcast in the signal.
Many experts have proposed hypotheses to explain the origin of radio signals, but all have been disproven.
Advanced alien civilizations may have broadcasted the Wow! Signal from a nearby exoplanet, but it is still possible that it was posted from Earth and was reflected back by a piece of space debris.
The researcher used data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia Archive to narrow down the signal’s origin to 38 candidate stars and then to just one star, designated 2MASS 19281982-2640123.
A star 1,800 light-years away from Earth that was confirmed to be similar to the Sun could be a possible exoplanet. If there is an intelligent civilization there, it could be here.
This is an exciting discovery in the field of SETI, as this is the strongest candidate for a genuine alien transmission. However, it is essential to be cautious, as the signal did not repeat, making it difficult to infer its origin.
Breakthrough Initiatives executive director Pete Worden shared that the Wow! The signal is likely human-generated radio interference, but there is no reason to assume that life can’t exist in other types of stars.
Read more on this at the following additional news sources:
1) Wow! Signal: Origin of possible alien signal narrowed down – study