Unraveling the mystery of signals from aliens

That’s the so-called “Wow signal!” recorded by the “Big Ear” observatory in 1977.

“Wow signal!” famously captured in 1977 in the framework of the SETI program was not sent by aliens, but was the result of physical processes inside the tail of a comet that flew close to Earth, the astronomer said in the article. published in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences.

For more than half a century, astronomers from the Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations (SETI) Institute in the US and their partners worldwide have been trying to find extraterrestrial life through signals radios captured from different regions of the galaxy. At present, there is no such thing as a life with a mind or a life without a mind, but according to representatives of NASA and SETI, this task can be solved very quickly within the next 10-20 years.

After 56 years of operation, the SETI astronomers have been unable to find any clear traces of extraterrestrial civilization with one small and controversial exception. That’s the so-called “Wow signal!” recorded by the “Big Ear” observatory in 1977. In the following years, astronomers failed to trace the source of the signal in the constellation Sagittarius, leading scientists to consider it a Radio waves are transmitted from space debris to Earth.

Mr. Antonio Peris from the College of St. Petersburg (USA), who at the time worked in the US Department of Defense, said last year that he had the key to the mystery of this signal, and promised to reveal it by the end of 2017. .

In his article, the astronomer said that at that time in 1977, when the SETI astronomers recorded the “Wow!” signal, there were two comets, 266P/Christensen and 335P/Gibbs, passing through the constellation. star Sagittarius, where that signal comes to us. At the time, scientists did not know of the existence of these comets, as they were only discovered in 2006 and 2008.

Comets contain large amounts of water, including hydrogen and oxygen. Ionized hydrogen emits radio waves on the same frequency that was received by the “Big Ear” observatory in 1977. Initially, scientists thought that such a coincidence could explain the existence of humans. extraterrestrials — since hydrogen is so common in the universe, it’s safe to say that aliens can use “impossible” signals on the same frequency basis to indicate the existence of aliens. me.

At the end of January 2017, comet 266P/Christensen once again passed through the constellation Sagittarius, something that Mr. Peris had long and carefully prepared for. Observing this comet and the sun, as well as a few distant stars, the Milky Way and other galaxies near the constellation Sagittarius at that time, Mr. Peris tried to figure out if these objects had spawned. What radio bursts do and are there like “Wow signal!” or not.

To make similar observations, Peris used a ten-meter radio telescope, equipped with a special spectral analysis system that the scientist created to detect the nature of the “alien signal. ” Using this system, astronomers track changes in signals with the same frequency coming from all cosmic sources, and compare them with the data in the records of the SETI project astronomers.

Most of these objects can emit radio waves at 1420 MHz, the same source of the “Wow!” signal, the scientist said, but only one object emits signals of primary form. body — it’s comet 266P/Christensen. When Peris moved the telescope about a degree away from the comet, the signal disappeared, and the same thing happened later when observing other comets — P/2013 EW90, P/2016 J1-A and 237P/LINEAR.

According to Mr. Peris, such results would show SETI astronomers the comet, not the traces of extraterrestrials. According to Popular Mechanics, the SETI astronomers disagreed with his opinion. They say the comet is too far away for Paris to pick up the signal using such a small telescope. Also, they note that “Wow signal!” lasts only a minute, while the comet emits radio waves continuously.