Wow Signal

The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal received on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States, then used to support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The signal appeared to come from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius and bore the expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin. 

Astronomer Jerry R. Ehman discovered the anomaly a few days later while reviewing the recorded data. He was so impressed by the result that he circled the reading on the computer printout, "6EQUJ5", and wrote the comment "Wow!" on its side, leading to the event's widely used name. 

The entire signal sequence lasted for the full 72 second window during which Big Ear was able to observe it, but has not been detected since, despite several subsequent attempts by Ehman and others. Many hypotheses have been advanced on the origin of the emission, including natural and human-made sources, but none of them adequately explain the signal.

Although the Wow! signal had no detectable modulation - a technique used to transmit information over radio waves - it remains the strongest candidate for an alien radio transmission ever detected.

Amateur astronomer and YouTuber Alberto Caballero, one of the founders of The Exoplanets Channel, has found a small amount of evidence for a source of notorious Wow! signal. In his paper uploaded to the arXiv preprint server, Caballero describes searching the Gaia database for possible sun-like stars that might host an exoplanet capable of supporting intelligent life.

In studying his search results, Caballero found what appears to fit the bill - a star (2MASS19281982-2640123) that is very nearly a mirror image of the sun - and is located in the part of the sky where the Wow! signal originated. He notes that there are other possible candidates in the area but suggests his candidate might provide the best launching point for a new research effort by astronomers who have the tools to look for exoplanets.

Back in 1977, astronomers working with the Big Ear Radio Telescope- at the time, situated in Delaware, Ohio- recorded a unique signal from somewhere in the space. It was so strong and unusual that one of the workers on the team, Jerry Ehman, famously scrawled the world Wow! on the printout. Despite years of work and many man hours, no one has ever been able to trace the source of the signal or explain the strong, unique signal, which lasted for all of 72 seconds. Since that time, many people have suggested the only explanation for such a strong and unique signal is extraterrestrial intelligent life.

In this new effort, Caballero reasoned that if the source was some other life form, it would likely be living on an exoplanet- and if that were the case, it would stand to reason that such a life form might be living on a planet similar to Earth- one circling its own sun-like star. The Gaia database has been assembled by a team working at the Gaia observatory run by the European Space Agency. Launched back in 2013, the project has worked steadily on assembling the best map of the night sky ever created. To date, the team has mapped approximately 1.3 billion stars. 

In studying his search results, Caballero found what appears to fit the bill- a star (2MASS19281982-2640123) that is very nearly a mirror image of the sun- and is located in the part of the sky where the Wow! signal originated.