I've been thinking about the Wow signal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow_signal) lately, and the various possiblities about what it could be, and I have a few questions if anyone here is knowledgeable about it.

I've read an article that said that it was 'undoubtedly artificial'. I'm curious as to how they can be so sure it is artificial, and not some cosmic event that we are currently unfamiliar with. Pulsars seemed artifical too before we figured them out.

Secondly, I am curious about a theory that the guy who discovered it has postulated, that it was in fact terrestial in origin, but bounced off something in space, like a satellite or something. I've done a bit of research, and the frequency band that the signal was detected in (1420.356 MHz by one account, and 1420.456 MHz by another) is actually reserved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for radio astronomy, so no one, civilian or otherwise is allowed to use that area of the spectrum. I don't know how long it's been reserved for though, ie. whether it was reserved in 1977 when the signal was detected. a quick google search though reveals that NASA seems to use the 1400-2400 MHz range for radio telemetry (http://www.scsc.navy.mil/mission/telemetry.htm), which would fit the bill perfectly, eg. if they detected a telemetry signal bounced off a solar array on a satellite or something. If the satellite were rotating or something at the time, the signal would only appear for a brief period and might not appear on the second receiver, if the satellite had rotated away from the receiver. But yeah, as I said, their telemetry systems are certainly capable of using those frequencies, but whether they ever do or not I don't know.

Even assuming that it wasnt NASA however, it could just as easily have been a russian satellite or something.

Is there any way to determine, from the brief signal that we received how far away the transmitter was? like, for example, it lasted 72 seconds exactly, which is how long it took the receiver to pass over that section of sky, and it grew in strength then faded exactly as it should. So doesnt that make the possiblity of it being a satellite unlikely? Because if it were in a prograde orbit the signal would have been shorter than the 72 seconds detected, because the satellite would be moving across the sky, and surely the scientists would have known if there was a satellite in geosynchronous orbit at that exact location in the sky.


What other space based objects could reflect radio signals of terrestrial origin? Could a meteor or something like that? What about space junk?

It seems to me that the precise length of the signal makes a local source unlikely. But I'm not very knowledgeable about these things, and I've only been looking into it for the last half an hour or so :) I'm sure that much more knowledgeable astronomers have spent a lot more time looking into it.

So without knowing enough much about the technicalities of it, it's difficult to apply Occam's razor in this case :)

What do you guys think? Do you have any theories?

Could it have been a pulsar?

Could it have been a pulsar?

It seems unlikely because it was a 'transient' signal. That is, it's never been detected again since. In fact, they were using two receivers at the time, that scanned the sky 3 minutes apart or something, and it was never detected in the second receiver. Which means whatever the source was it stopped transmitting in that 3 minute blackout period. If it were a pulsar we could just point a radio telescope at that point in the sky and hear it again.

A secret military satellite?

Wikipedia has this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow%21_signal) to say

I've been thinking about the Wow signal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow_signal) lately, and the various possiblities about what it could be, and I have a few questions if anyone here is knowledgeable about it.

I've read an article that said that it was 'undoubtedly artificial'. I'm curious as to how they can be so sure it is artificial, and not some cosmic event that we are currently unfamiliar with. Pulsars seemed artifical too before we figured them out.

Secondly, I am curious about a theory that the guy who discovered it has postulated, that it was in fact terrestial in origin, but bounced off something in space, like a satellite or something. I've done a bit of research, and the frequency band that the signal was detected in (1420.356 MHz by one account, and 1420.456 MHz by another) is actually reserved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for radio astronomy, so no one, civilian or otherwise is allowed to use that area of the spectrum. I don't know how long it's been reserved for though, ie. whether it was reserved in 1977 when the signal was detected. a quick google search though reveals that NASA seems to use the 1400-2400 MHz range for radio telemetry (http://www.scsc.navy.mil/mission/telemetry.htm), which would fit the bill perfectly, eg. if they detected a telemetry signal bounced off a solar array on a satellite or something. If the satellite were rotating or something at the time, the signal would only appear for a brief period and might not appear on the second receiver, if the satellite had rotated away from the receiver. But yeah, as I said, their telemetry systems are certainly capable of using those frequencies, but whether they ever do or not I don't know.

Even assuming that it wasnt NASA however, it could just as easily have been a russian satellite or something.

Is there any way to determine, from the brief signal that we received how far away the transmitter was? like, for example, it lasted 72 seconds exactly, which is how long it took the receiver to pass over that section of sky, and it grew in strength then faded exactly as it should. So doesnt that make the possiblity of it being a satellite unlikely? Because if it were in a prograde orbit the signal would have been shorter than the 72 seconds detected, because the satellite would be moving across the sky, and surely the scientists would have known if there was a satellite in geosynchronous orbit at that exact location in the sky.


What other space based objects could reflect radio signals of terrestrial origin? Could a meteor or something like that? What about space junk?

It seems to me that the precise length of the signal makes a local source unlikely. But I'm not very knowledgeable about these things, and I've only been looking into it for the last half an hour or so :) I'm sure that much more knowledgeable astronomers have spent a lot more time looking into it.

So without knowing enough much about the technicalities of it, it's difficult to apply Occam's razor in this case :)

What do you guys think? Do you have any theories?

The 'WOW Signal' was and still is:

www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_shostak_wow_021205.html

May_wentee :D

It would be nice if we could look at a copy of the "Wow" signal.

It's on the Wikipedia page, hotlinked here to save your finger:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ee/Wowsignal.gif

Unfortunately that image only shows the signal strength, and not very accurately at that. I wonder if anyone has examined the contents of the signal?
Granted we only got 72 seconds, but that's long enough to establish a short pattern if there was one there.

I tend to believe in the simplest explanation, that it was some sort of celestial interference being temporarily amplified somehow, by a gravity lens or something like that, but if it was our first, and only contact with an alien civilisation, and we only caught a glimpse of it. That would suck. I think we should fire off a message back in that direction. Granted, none of us will be around if a reply ever came, but at least it's something. It's letting them know we're here, and we heard, and if they're still transmitting, to send us another signal.

Also, maybe there's no prime numbers in it, maybe there's no repeating pattern, maybe the 'beacon' itself is just an unusually strong signal. I dunno.

Unfortunately that image only shows the signal strength, and not very accurately at that.
That's the only record there is. It is a complete record of all captured information about the event.

The 'WOW Signal' cannot be proved or disproved to be an actual signal from ET. the scientific community is still divided to this day on what and where the 'WOW Signal' was and came from. If it were proven to be an actual message from ET, then maybe, just maybe someday ET might want to fire up his cell phone again and give us a call. Who knows.

May_wentee

I suggest that the WOW Signal was probably more than just 'celestial interference' or from a earthly radio source. But of course no one can prove it wasn't either. I would put my money that it takes the form of a 'Beacon' from some source originating from deep space. What that source is or where it was located is anyone's guess.

72 seconds is long enough to send several frames in a slow-scan format that can be recorded to audio tape. Maybe one of the reasons we aren't hitting anything is because signals aren't being saved as demodulated sound.