one of the most common said it related comments I get is that the wow signal
is case closed having been explained as natural radio
emissions from a comet this is actually a misconception due to the widespread
press attention the initial story received however what the press didn't
cover as much was the aftermath and subsequent developments in that story
which put the common explanation in doubt perhaps this shouldn't be
surprising the while signal has proven itself over the last four decades to be
particularly resilient when faced with natural explanations for it there have
been quite a few advanced over the years and all of them have fallen short in
this case of the Comets it was based on a paper by Antonio Parris and Evan
Davies in a subsequent paper by Paris links below where it is suggested that
either of the two comets are strong candidates for explanations of the
signal it was pointed out that the while signals frequency was near 1420
megahertz this particular frequency is called the hydrogen line because it's
where hydrogen the most common element in the universe can emit radio waves the
thinking is that anyone in the universe working with radio would know that
making it a natural frequency to use to make contact with other scientifically
minded species the authors note that two comets were in the area when the WoW
signal was detected and the clouds of hydrogen that surrounded them could have
been responsible for emitting the signal while at first glance that seems
reasonable but the paper ended up setting off a debate and the devil ended
up in the details in the end the WoW signal emerged unexplained the reason
for this new chapter in the decades of debate and controversy is because the
WoW signal wasn't just an odd signal it was exactly what we would expect to see
in an alien signal for one it was a very loud signal on the order of 30 times
stronger than the background that's a problem for the comet explanation it's
not that comets can't produce a signal at this frequency and that's an open
possibility it's that it's not likely they could do it with this much energy
without getting noticed long before now another complication is that the while
signal was also extremely narrow in bandwidth natural radio sources
generally tend not to emit narrowband signals but technology does it's almost
a hallmark but the real problem with the comet
petha says is that the while signal didn't repeat that's right the one thing
that hurts the WoW signal most as far as candidate alien signals go in this case
also discounts a natural explanation if it were a comet the radio telescope
should have picked up the signal again within minutes it didn't
whatever the WoW signal was it was there one minute and gone the next
comet clouds are diffused and huge and simply wouldn't have abruptly cut off
their transmission in short the comet hypothesis falls flat
but all explanations for this signal likewise fall flat interference from
Earth is not probable we've internationally agreed not to
broadcast on the hydrogen line just in case of alien signals coming in a glitch
and the equipment isn't very likely either the telescope never showed any
such glitch again and the smooth bell curve nature of the signal rising and
falling is consistent with a telescope passing over illegitimate radio source
unfortunately unless this signal is picked up again and it hasn't been even
though plenty of looked that's all we're ever going to know another thing I often
get asked about the signal was whether there was any information content in it
despite dubious claims otherwise on the internet there was not the circled
letters for the signal the famous 6eq uj5 are only a measure of signal
strength the columns are kept to one digit so all other numbers are different
radio sources one and two were the most common and represent weak background
signals three to nine are increasingly stronger and you can see the strongest
signals were also circled as interesting higher than nine signals moved from
numbers to the alphabet that the signal got to you and the alphabet is amazing
it shows how strong this signal really was but otherwise it appeared to be an
unmodulated beam of raw radio energy broadcast a narrowband at
the hydrogen line think of that like a flashlight if you have a friend standing
20 feet away sweeping a flashlight beam past your eyes you would see the light
rise and fall but there wouldn't be any information in a light beam in this case
it was the radio telescope scanning past and the source was a point which would
be expected from a planet or star system with a transmitter in it but no content
wouldn't be too surprising for an alien civilization sending out a signal to get
the attention of other species the would know that it would be unlikely for
that alien species to decode any kind of signal so raw pulses might be the more
likely first contact message though all it says is here we are but maybe that's
all you need to say thanks for listening I am futurist and science fiction author
John Michael Cote a currently wondering what would happen if the first
transmission we intercept from an alien civilization is someone's angry response
to the WoW signal aliens telling them to quit being so cryptic and be sure to
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