I had a theory that it was someone walking across the field with an electronic device, like a flashlight. So I looked up the duration of the signal, size of the field, and average walking pace. It matched perfectly.
There's a story of a famous observatory that, iirc, kept on seeing really powerful intermittent signals that they couldn't quite hone in on. It seemed everytime they tried to zoom in on the source they couldn't find it again. Signal was quite elusive. They finally traced it to people using the microwave in the break room in a very specific way. Some people liked to open the microwave door before the timer went off. T…
The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
201–210 of 279 posts
Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
#202Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
#203If you read the article they actually refute it as extraterrestrial.
I'm not sure why you say that, the second abstract clearly says
> implying a galactic source ...
and
> Our analysis provides additional support for the hypothesis that the Wow! Signal most likely had an astrophysical origin rather than being attributed to radio interference
Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
#204If you read the article they actually refute it as extraterrestrial.
I'm not sure why you say that, the second abstract clearly says > implying a galactic source ... and > Our analysis provides additional support for the hypothesis that the Wow! Signal most likely had an astrophysical origin rather than being attributed to radio interference
galactic source != aliens, astrophysical origin != aliens.
Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
HN armchair astronomer question time. What's your favorite answer to the Fermi Paradox? Any crazy far-fetched sci-fi / pseudo-scientific ideas? I'm not really a fan of "Dark Forest". I prefer these: - We're truly rare, maybe even first. Intelligence is extremely hard. LUCA is old, civilization happened yesterday. - Fragile universe. It's easy to destroy universes by accidentally setting off vacuum collapse. This woul…
Mine is the Great Filter, basically a unification of life itself being rare and the universe being fragile. Though I don't think it reaches the level of destroying the universe, I think the filter happens at the level of being able to destroy a world or maybe a galaxy. I think evolution creates a local maxima that's incompatible with access to advanced technology (read: unbelievable quantities of energy). There's a b…
Mine is that fossil fuels exist on all planets that intelligent life evolves on, and all species extinct themselves once they discover how to use them.
Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
#206It could be an AWACS out of Kirtland
Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you mind expanding on your theory more?
It was after watching a documentary called "WOW Signal". The receiver they built was along the edge of a field, and it's designed to pick up extremely weak variations in electrical signals/radio waves. They go into great detail about how sensitive it is. The signal itself looks like a parabola when graphed, gaining in intensity and then falling off at the same rate. Exactly what you'd expect from someone walking acro…
> The signal itself looks like a parabola when graphed, gaining in intensity and then falling off at the same rate. Exactly what you'd expect from someone walking across the field in front of it.
Also exactly what you'd expect if aliens were beaming a search signal into their sky, no?
Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure why you say that, the second abstract clearly says > implying a galactic source ... and > Our analysis provides additional support for the hypothesis that the Wow! Signal most likely had an astrophysical origin rather than being attributed to radio interference
galactic source != aliens, astrophysical origin != aliens.
extraterrestrial != aliens
extraterrestrial = not from earth
Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
#209I had a theory that it was someone walking across the field with an electronic device, like a flashlight. So I looked up the duration of the signal, size of the field, and average walking pace. It matched perfectly.
It would have to be a very specific kind of device. The "Wow!" signal isn't broad-spectrum noise. It's one specific frequency, and it just happens to be a frequency near one we expect to be used as a signal. Somebody could well have been walking across a field with a 1450 MHz generator. I don't know why; maybe it was a prototype of a portable microwave-oven/Walkman mashup. If so, it was leaky, and perhaps that's why…
> it just happens to be a frequency near one we expect to be used as a signal.
What's the reasoning for this? I've seen noted that the Wow signal of 1420 MHz is near the hydrogen line frequency, and is commonly detected astrophysically.
So is the reasoning just that, if you want to send a signal, then you might choose this frequency because other civilizations will probably have detectors tuned to it?
But then the flip-side of that is that if you detect this frequency, then it's almost certainly natural origin, from the excitation of hydrogen.
Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was after watching a documentary called "WOW Signal". The receiver they built was along the edge of a field, and it's designed to pick up extremely weak variations in electrical signals/radio waves. They go into great detail about how sensitive it is. The signal itself looks like a parabola when graphed, gaining in intensity and then falling off at the same rate. Exactly what you'd expect from someone walking acro…
> The signal itself looks like a parabola when graphed, gaining in intensity and then falling off at the same rate. Exactly what you'd expect from someone walking across the field in front of it. Also exactly what you'd expect if aliens were beaming a search signal into their sky, no?
Yes, but one is far more likely.