- Reaction score
- 1,678
In 1977, the sound of extraterrestrials was heard by human ears for the first time - or so people at the time thought. The Wow! Signal was detected by astronomer Jerry Ehman using Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope.
It is a radio signal detector that, at the time, was pointed at a group of stars called Chi Sagittarii in the constellation Sagittarius.
When scanning the skies around the stars, Ehman captured a 72 second burst of radio waves: he circled the reading and wrote "Wow!: next to it, hence the signal's name.
Over the last 40 years, the signal has been cited as evidence that we are not alone in the galaxy. Experts and laypeople alike believed that, finally, we had evidence of alien life.
However, Antonio Paris, of St Petersburg College, has now discovered the explanation: a pair of comets. The work was published in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences.
These comets, known as 266P/Christensen and 335P/Gibbs, have clouds of hydrogen gas millions of kilometres in diameter surrounding them.
www.sciencealert.com
It is a radio signal detector that, at the time, was pointed at a group of stars called Chi Sagittarii in the constellation Sagittarius.
When scanning the skies around the stars, Ehman captured a 72 second burst of radio waves: he circled the reading and wrote "Wow!: next to it, hence the signal's name.
Over the last 40 years, the signal has been cited as evidence that we are not alone in the galaxy. Experts and laypeople alike believed that, finally, we had evidence of alien life.
However, Antonio Paris, of St Petersburg College, has now discovered the explanation: a pair of comets. The work was published in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences.
These comets, known as 266P/Christensen and 335P/Gibbs, have clouds of hydrogen gas millions of kilometres in diameter surrounding them.
The 40-Year Old Mystery of The "Wow!" Signal Has Just Been Solved
In 1977, the sound of extraterrestrials was heard by human ears for the first time - or so people at the time thought. The Wow! Signal was detected by astronomer Jerry Ehman using Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope.
www.sciencealert.com
Last edited by a moderator:
