Posted on 11/25/2020 5:18:25 AM PST by Red Badger
The Wow! signal represented as "6EQUJ5". Credit: Big Ear Radio Observatory and North American AstroPhysical Observatory (NAAPO)
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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 the 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.
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 space. It was so strong and unusual that one of the workers on the team, Jerry Ehman, famously scrawled the word 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. Pursuing this logic, Caballero began searching the publicly available Gaia database for just such a 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 (2MASS 19281982-2640123) 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.
More information: An approximation to determine the source of the WOW! Signal, arXiv:2011.06090 [physics.pop-ph] arxiv.org/abs/2011.06090
I read the book.
As one who watched “On The Beach” only once, well over a half century ago as a teenager, but still occasion hums “Waltzing Matilda” while I walk, I know of what you speak. How many others here, do you think, also know?>//
I remember, in very much the same manner as you.
Oddly enough, their spaceship is called the Mayflower.
Not a horrible password either.
I guess I’m not tuned in to this, just what does 6EQUJ5 mean? Is it something made up on the far end, or a “name” made up by a computer that “analyzed” the signal?
A million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare.
I thought that was how they were written in the first place!.....................
About 20 years ago, I was driving through NH, and saw “ICUFOS2” plate. Older guy too, in a Caddie-size vehicle.
Not the panache of 6EQUJ5, I admit, but...
That’s silly. Where would Shakespeare come up with a million monkeys?
Send More Chuck Berry!
The House of Stuart?..........................
It was the coffee maker near the equipment that was the source....
I saw the movie and read the book a long time ago when I was but a callow fellow. I remember that scene as well as the sailor who jumped ship to see home one last time, as well as the auto race. We’re all going to die anyway so might as well make the best of the time we have left.
If I had to pick out the one flaw in the plot given what we know today it is the fact that, unless we were lobbing around scads of cobalt bombs, there would have been survivors. The citizens of Kazakhstan who lived in the neighborhood of the Semipalatinsk Test Site had over 100 above-ground tests in their backyard over the course of a 40 year time-frame, and, while somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of the births were of horribly deformed, most of the population of the area lived normal lives.
As far as the WOW signal, I thought everybody knew that it meant “Send More Chuck Berry !”
>It was the coffee maker near the equipment that was the source....
I remember something like that although I think it was at another radio telescope and the mysterious signal was traced to the night shift heating their coffee in a leaky microwave.
I thought they decided it was caused by a badly shielded microwave oven.
I know.
And have the DVD now.
“A million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare”
And if all the people in China jumped off a 1 meter platform and landed straight legged with locked knees simultaneously.... the earth would be knocked off its orbit.
No they wouldn't. Now an infinite amount of monkeys with an infinite amount of typewriters could possibly do it in an infinite amount of time. But since the works of Shakespeare are not that important, why don't we use the resources to reproduce the Bible?
We're lucky they've been using a yard stick.
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