Astronomers revisit the mysterious Wow! Report – and find a big surprise

Almost 50 years ago, astronomers searching the cosmos of evidence of a smart extraterrestrial life detected a strong radio signal emanating from deep space. Today, scientists still do not know where – or what – wow! The signal comes from. There remains one of the most perplexed phenomena in the history of radio-astronomy.

A new study brought scientists closer to resolving this mystery. ARECIBO WOW researchers! (AWOW) The project at the ARECIBO Observatory in Puerto Rico recently reanalyzed the signal and decades of unpublished observations that followed its detection. The results, currently available on the Preprint Arxiv server and which will soon be subject to the astrophysical journal for peer review, considerably revise the wow! Signal parameters and provide the most precise evaluation to date, according to the researchers.

A mystery of several decades

When the Big Ear observatory in Ohio first detected WOW! Signal on August 15, 1977, SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) the astronomer Jerry R. Ehman was so stunned by his intensity that he surrounded him in red and wrote “Wow!” Next to it, hence the name. The signal immediately stood out in Ehman and his colleagues as a probable candidate for extraterrestrial radio transmission, but over the years, growing evidence has stressed natural explanations.

In recent years, researchers led by Abel Méndez – author of the new study and director of the Planetary Habitabilities Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico – have significantly contributed to these elements of evidence within the framework of the Awow project. In August 2024, Méndez and his colleagues published results suggesting the wow! The signal came from the sudden clarification of a cold hydrogen cloud due to a transitional radiation source such as a magnetar. These neutron stars have magnetic fields strong enough to excite atoms in hydrogen clouds and cause an explosion of light.

Revalle the wow! Signal

Now, the Mendez team has meticulously recovered and analyzed decades of SETI archive data to reassess the wow! Properties signal and assess this hypothesis. Having access to modern data analysis tools and recent observations has been a “change of game” for this study, Méndez told Gizmodo. Such progress has enabled their team to calculate more specific measures for wow! The location of origin, intensity and frequency of the signal. “In number, (these revisions) seem weak, but they are not small,” he said.

The calculation of researchers for the intensity of the signal – or the density of flow – was four times higher than the previous estimates, but the revised frequency was more surprising for Mendez. He and his colleagues found that it was 1420.726 MHz – a little higher than they had planned. The results suggest wow! The signal came from a source in our galaxy, moving faster than scientists thought before.

Mystery resolved? Not yet

This adds weight to the hypothesis of hydrogen clouds from the cold of the researchers and to the broader idea that this signal was born from a natural astrophysical phenomenon rather than a terrestrial radio interference. That said, the case is not closed – but.

“We are confident and surprised – that we get closer,” said Méndez. Over the next two years, he and his colleagues will continue to publish new discoveries from SETI archive data, hope, to progress towards a solution to this mystery of several decades.

Correction: an earlier version of this article indicated that the researchers submitted the study to the astrophysical newspaper for peers reviewed on August 14. In fact, the researchers submitted the study to Arxiv on August 14 and plan to submit it to APJ after incorporating comments.