Cómo el '¡Guau!' obras de señal

¿Estamos solos en el universo? Esta pregunta tentadora es lo que lanzó la primera búsqueda científica seria de inteligencia extraterrestre ( SETI ) en la década de 1970. En 1973, el Radio Observatorio de la Universidad Estatal de Ohio, conocido como "Big Ear", comenzó a escanear los cielos en busca de los más mínimos rastros de transmisiones extraterrestres, destellos en el silencio ensordecedor del espacio [fuente: Kawa ]. Y en una noche de agosto de 1977, la primera señal asombrosa que recibieron no fue un gemido, sino un rugido.

Jerry Ehman was an Ohio State professor volunteering with the Big Ear SETI experiment that summer in 1977 [source: Krulwich]. Every couple of days, a bike messenger would arrive at Ehman's office with a pile of printouts generated by the telescope's mainframe computer. Ehman's thankless job was to scan the mind-numbing numbers for anomalies, anything that stood out from the constant low hum of background radiation.

On Aug. 18, 1977, Ehman was scanning readouts from three days earlier when he came across something radically different. Instead of the usual 1s and 2s and occasional 4s, there was a stream of both letters and numbers signaling a radio transmission 30 times louder than the background buzz of deep space [source: Krulwich]. Grabbing a red pen — he's a teacher, after all — Ehman circled the mysterious sequence "6EQUJ5" and excitedly scribbled next to it the single word "Wow!"

More than 35 years later, the so-called "Wow!" signal remains the "closest encounter" mankind has ever had with what may or may not be an alien species. The powerful blast of radio waves only lasted 72 seconds, but many astronomers and amateur UFOlogists believe the unique characteristics of the signal point to a celestial origin [source: Kiger]. In the three decades since that original wow moment, no one has been able to replicate the signal or identify its definitive source, cosmic or earthly.

1. How SETI Works
2. The Case for the 'Wow!' Signal
3. The Case Against the 'Wow!' Signal

The nearest planet that is similar in size to Earth and located within the narrow habitable zone of its star is unromantically named Kepler-186f. If there is life on this planet, none of us will ever know. That's because Kepler-186f is 493 light-years away [source: Vergano].

When the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) began in the 1960s, astronomers quickly dismissed the idea of physically visiting an alien planet. The technological advances necessary to shoot humans across the galaxy is, like the nearest habitable planet, still light-years away.

Instead, the SETI sciences decided to stay on Earth, but keep an ear on the heavens. If intelligent life is out there, SETI decided, then it must have an understanding of radio waves and the electromagnetic spectrum. Like us, the alien species probably doesn't have unlimited energy resources to travel around the universe looking for friends. The most efficient way to say, "Hello, universe. We're here!" is to send a radio transmission.

La siguiente pregunta para los científicos de SETI fue ¿dónde escuchar? La mejor conjetura fue promovida por dos físicos de Cornell a principios de la década de 1960, Philip Morrison y Guiseppi Cocconi. Los dos hombres asumieron que una forma de vida extraterrestre lo suficientemente inteligente como para dominar el espectro electromagnético intentaría elaborar su mensaje en un "lenguaje común" que cualquiera pudiera entender [fuente: Kiger ].

La frecuencia electromagnética más común, razonaron Morrison y Cocconi, es emitida por el elemento más común en el universo, el hidrógeno. Si un extraterrestre intentara comunicarse con nosotros a través de un canal abierto, elegiría 1420 megahercios, también conocida como la "línea de hidrógeno".

Y así comenzó la búsqueda de vida extraterrestre. Usando grandes radiotelescopios, los astrónomos se enfocan en un pequeño trozo de cielo y escuchan la señal más débil de una transmisión inusual que viene en la frecuencia de 1420 MHz. Después de escuchar durante unos minutos, el telescopio se mueve a la siguiente pequeña porción de cielo, y así sucesivamente [fuente: Andersen ].

Y eso es exactamente lo que Jerry Ehman y otros voluntarios de SETI estaban haciendo con el telescopio Big Ear en el estado de Ohio en el verano de 1977. Estaban escuchando una franja del cielo cerca de la constelación de Sagitario y midiendo la fuerza de la señal captada en el canal de 1420 MHz.

Ehman and others had been at it for years, always receiving the same 1s and 2s of normal background radiation, until Aug. 15, when the Big Ear picked up a startling signal that would echo through the decades.

Next we'll find out why the "Wow!" signal makes such a great case for being a message from ET.

For 72 seconds on Aug. 15, 1977, the Big Ear radio telescope picked up a signal that was 30 times as loud as the normal background noise. But what makes this signal worthy of Jerry Ehman's famous "Wow"? Why does it look to many astronomers like a message from an alien planet?

First, it has to do with the hydrogen line. The frequency of the "Wow!" signal was recorded as 1420.4556 MHz, almost exactly the electromagnetic wavelength of hydrogen [source: Krulwich]. If an alien species were to choose a single frequency to broadcast a long-range message, SETI scientists concluded, that's the one.

The second striking characteristic of the "Wow!" signal is its "shape." The shape of a radio signal describes how it would look if graphed over time.

When the "Wow!" signal was first detected by Big Ear, it registered as a 6 on the telescope's "loudness" scale. A few seconds later, it jumped to an "E" (the computer could only report single digits, so when a number exceeded 9, it switched to letters). The signal peaked at "U" (the equivalent of the number 30), then it slowly decreased back to 5. Plotting the signal on a graph, you get a nearly symmetrical pyramid shape.

Why does the signal's shape matter? Because it matches the shape you would expect from a deep space source. Here's why [source: Andersen]:

Another tantalizing characteristic of the "Wow!" signal was the sharpness of the transmission. When a radio telescope receives electromagnetic waves from a natural cosmic source, like a quasar, the radio waves are diffused over a band of frequencies.

Not the "Wow!" signal. The Big Ear telescope was listening on 50 different channels, not just 1420 MHz, and none of those other radio channels registered a blip [source: Andersen]. To many SETI scientists, this is a clear sign of an intentional radio transmission from a distant world, not an accidental cosmic event.

Next we'll hear what the skeptics say, and what we've discovered in the 35 years since we first heard the "Wow!"

'Wow!' Right Back

If the "Wow!" signal was really a "hello" from ET, then shouldn't we respond? In 2012, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the "Wow!" signal, National Geographic and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico beamed back a stream of digital responses collected via Twitter, including a friendly warning from comedian Stephen Colbert: "We are not delicious. In fact, we're kind of gamey and we get stuck in your teeth" [source: Space.com].

If you believe that we are not alone in the universe — or want to believe — then the "Wow!" signal offers thrilling proof that someone, somewhere, is trying to say "hello."

Then there's the bad news. In the more than three decades since Jerry Ehman circled the astonishing "6EQUJ5" on his printout, no SETI radio telescope has recorded anything like the "Wow!" signal. The Big Ear even scanned the same patch of sky 100 more times, but found nothing [source: Gray and Marvel].

Robert Gray, an amateur astronomer and data analyst with a passion for the "Wow!" signal, conducted the most serious attempt to replicate the signal using one of the biggest and baddest radio telescopes on Earth, the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico.

In 1995 and 1996, Gray aimed the VLA at Sagittarius , the first time the telescope was used expressly to search for signs of extraterrestrial life. The VLA — which combines the power of 27 separate radio antennas — is 100 times more sensitive than the Big Ear, which was retired in 1997 [sources: NRAO, Gray and Marvel].

Sadly, Gray found no trace of the "Wow!" signal with the VLA. But that wasn't enough to convince him that the original recording was some kind of glitch [source: Gray and Marvel].

In a 2012 interview published in The Atlantic, Gray argued that our assumptions about extraterrestrial radio transmissions are all wrong. We imagine a constant beacon shining toward Earth from a distant planet. But the energy required to sustain such a broadcast — in all directions, at all times, across millions of light years — is equal to thousands upon thousands of our biggest power plants.

What if the alien civilization isn't a hyper-advanced race with limitless resources, but something more like ourselves? The more economical approach would be to broadcast the signal from a type of radio "lighthouse" that transmits its message in only one direction at a time. If that's the case, then our current system of searching for alien life — focusing on one patch of sky for 20 minutes before moving on to the next — would require tremendous luck to catch the signal as it briefly flashes our way [source: Andersen].

In 2017, a scientist and professor at St. Petersburg College, Florida named Antonio Paris claimed to have solved the mystery of the Wow signal. He believed an undiscovered comet "photobombed" the Big Ear 1977 observatory.

Paris found two comets, 266P/Christensen and 335P/Gibbs, which were discovered in 2006 and 2008 respectively, would have been near to the Chi Sagittarii observing region on Aug. 15, 1977. 266P/Christensen made a return visit to the same patch of sky between 2016 and 2017. After an extensive observing campaign, Paris found that 266P/Christensen emitted a radio signal at 1420.25 MHz. "The results of this investigation, therefore, conclude that cometary spectra are detectable at 1420 MHz and, more importantly, that the 1977 "Wow!" Signal was a natural phenomenon from a solar system body," Paris said .

Case closed? Not every scientist is convinced about this explanation. Some note the 266P/Christensen was not in the right spot on August 15, 1977. The signal was also only detected by one of the "feed horns," that are the telescope's detectors. Comets don't move fast enough to have missed being detected by both feed horns [source: Cooper].

So, the Wow Signal mystery continues -- for now.

Originally Published: Feb 17, 2015

Author's Note: How the 'Wow!' Signal Works

Like most people, I'm fascinated by the idea that somewhere deep in the far reaches of space, there's a planet that looks a lot like ours — or nothing like ours — that's home to intelligent life. I like to fantasize that this advanced race has overcome all of our technological and environmental challenges. They can produce limitless amounts of energy without burning fossil fuels or polluting the air. They can travel faster than the speed of light and manipulate the laws of space and time. They can eat all of the "Double Stuf" Oreos they want without gaining an ounce. (I said this was a fantasy.) My rational self knows that the chances of a "close encounter" with an alien race are impossibly remote, but in the meantime, I'm cheering for SETI and hoping for an even more miraculous "Wow!" moment.

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