After numerous checks and re-checks, it’s been found to have definitely come from an extraterrestrial source.
It was broadcast at 1420 MHz. This frequency isn’t used by Earth communications for science reasons. It’s a frequency which neutral hydrogen emits at in interstellar space and is useful in radio astronomy.
Interestingly, emitting a strong signal at this frequency is a likely way to get someone’s attention if there’s anyone listening, because any other radio astronomers in the universe will definitely know of it and be making observations of it.
That really is a very strong signal. Against the backgrounds, it looks to me like about 30 standard deviations (give or take).
Actually, that globular cluster (M55) is just the closest object to the transmission’s source. It appeared to have come from a region of mostly empty space (though it’s worth remembering that distant red dwarfs or brown dwarfs could be too faint to be detectable).
The astronomer who found this and scrawled “Wow!” on that printout was Jerry Ehman at the Big Ear radio telescope in Ohio. Credit where it’s due.
Despite a lot of efforts, this kind of signal has only ever been recorded this one time. There’s a chance we may never know what it was.
It is unlike any other kind of phenomenon ever observed in astronomy. The only logical scientific explanation is that it was one of two things: Either it was a completely unknown and incredibly rare astronomical phenomenon which modern astronomy is completely unaware of – or it was an intercepted alien transmission. There are no other possibilities.
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