It was a short, very strong amplification of radio radiation in a narrow part of the spectrum.
The signal radiated from about the center of the Galaxy and did not repeat itself, so its nature remained unclear.
Among the hypotheses, of course, there was a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization, and there was also talk about undetected comets.
Now, scientists have provided another possible, and very reasonable, explanation – the signal spread a rare flash in a cloud of gas.
The researchers made the conclusion based on the Arecibo telescope data collected in the period 2017-2020.
In the archives of the now-defunct telescope, they found signals very similar to the “Wow!” signal, only about a hundred times fainter. The signals came from clouds of atomic hydrogen gas in various locations.
Such gas is abundant in the Galaxy—making up more than a quarter of all interstellar matter—but similar signals are rare. Why? Because they need one more ingredient, a source that creates a maser effect in the cloud and greatly enhances the radiation of the 21-centimeter-long hydrogen gas.
Such sources could be, for example, magnetar flashes that last a few seconds or minutes. The “Wow!” signal was simply the result of an exceptionally bright flash. Such a scenario explains well both the origin of the signal and the fact that it was never detected again.
Another important conclusion of this result is that you need to be very careful when looking for technotraces, that is, signs of the existence of technological civilizations, because completely natural, albeit rare, maser phenomena can be accidentally supported as such.
The results of the study have been published on arXiv.
2024-09-01 13:23:38