Wow Signal Planetary Origin

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Profile Andrew S Edwards
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Message 1025075 - Posted: 14 Aug 2010, 18:32:32 UTC

Anyone studying intelligent alien life is, of course, aware of the famous wow signal. This non-terrestrial/non-solar system origin narrowband radio signal that lasted 72 seconds through Big Ear radio telescope has become proof to SETI community that intelligent life does exist elsewhere. One thing that has never been found though is a planet or object of origin. I have recently done a search of extrasolar planets (full planets outside our solar system) for planets near the source of the wow signal. There were about five stars with orbiting planets that fell eerily close to the right ascension and declination of the wow signal. These are MOA-2007-BLG-192L, HD 181720, HD 181342, HD 180902, and HD 179949. The reasons these may not match exactly with the wow signal could be many things. First of all, two different frequencies were taken down for the wow signal at 1420.356 and also at 14203.4556 MHz which could mean we don’t have the exact origin of the signal pinpointed. Another theory is that intelligent aliens may have sent the signal from a satellite to avoid interference from stars or to avoid sending it through their atmosphere. Either way it could be possible that whoever sent the wow message could have come from these planets. Additionally, the planet in MOA-2007-BLG-192L is the known earth sized extrasolar planet, and the stars in the others are F and G type stars similar to the Sun. It is very possible that one of these planets are home to a form of intelligent life. We will never know until more research has been done, but now we have a piece of the sky to look in.

Wow Signal:
19h 22m 24.64s right ascension -27*03’ declination
19h 25m 17.01s right ascension

MOA-2007-BLG-192L:
19h 08m 04s right ascension -27*09’ declination (earth sized planet thought to have ice)

HD 181720:
19h 22m 53s right ascension -32*55’09” declination (g type star)

HD 181342:
19h 21m 04s right ascension -23*37’10” declination (f type star)

HD 180902:
19h 19m 18s right ascension -23*33’29” declination

HD 179949:
19h 15m 33s right ascension -24*10’45” declination

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Joseph C. M. Francis

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Message 1027923 - Posted: 24 Aug 2010, 2:57:58 UTC - in response to Message 1025075.  

was the recording of that event made freely public for analysis?
If so do you know links?
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Profile Johnney Guinness
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Message 1028158 - Posted: 25 Aug 2010, 1:22:57 UTC - in response to Message 1025075.  

....[snip...]. This non-terrestrial/non-solar system origin narrowband radio signal that lasted 72 seconds through Big Ear radio telescope has become proof to SETI community that intelligent life does exist elsewhere.

The wow signal has NOT become proof of anything, especially to people in the SETI community! Its proof that its easy to pick up radio interference if you point a radio dish at the sky!

Its a million times more likely that the wow signal was an aeroplane passing over head above the dish and the telescope just picked up the passing transmissions at 1.42GHz.

100 years from now, we will have confirmed thousands of stars in that part of the sky with earth-like planets orbiting them.

John.
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Message 1028197 - Posted: 25 Aug 2010, 3:52:34 UTC

I believe that no matter if the wow signal is real or not, it is the closest thing there is to a lead that the SETI community really has. If you can search the area the signal is said to come from (which has been determined) and find places that could support life, that is a pretty good lead.

Personally I do not believe or disbelieve in alien intelligence, but search for it because i want to know. I do no believe or disbelieve the wow signal, but research it because it is a lead... just a thought.
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Michael Watson

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Message 1028316 - Posted: 25 Aug 2010, 16:22:07 UTC

We have very few facts to work with in trying to understand the nature of the 'wow signal'. Dr. Robert S. Dixon was the head scientist on the 'Big Ear' SETI project at Ohio State University, which detected the signal. He has written that due to the fact that the duration of the signal exactly matched the time which a very distant object would take the pass through the detection beam of the antenna, the source of the signal must be as least as distant as the Moon. Michael
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Message 1029596 - Posted: 30 Aug 2010, 2:30:02 UTC - in response to Message 1025075.  

The wow signal was a nice fine. But looking at the problems with commands for NASA with the rovers on mars,we see that speed of light comuntion just are too slow. They will not work even in the local solar system. So to think any advanced civilation used radio, or light for comuntions is just funny. How about trying entanglement. Funny if our first contact is the cable company for not not paying for TV.
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Michael Watson

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Message 1029673 - Posted: 30 Aug 2010, 13:30:34 UTC

Advanced civilizations in space may indeed have something better than radio with which to communicate. However, they may also use radio in order to communicate with less advanced civilizations, like our own, which do not have access to a better method of communications. The possibility has been discussed that the 'wow signal' was such an attempt at communications, perhaps swept through the galaxy in a beam, periodically. Michael
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Message 1036753 - Posted: 29 Sep 2010, 0:17:31 UTC - in response to Message 1025075.  

Ok first off... I know I am not even a Physics Minor... and this is a old topic... but when trying to trace the source of a signal... has any one "Computed" for star and planetary movement? Since we KNOW that "STUFF" in the way, or near a signal can distort, and even in some cases redirect a signal. Then we can safely assume that all factors must be accounted for. Then if there is hope of locating new signal, we need to KNOW exactly where every planet and star was, and where it is now. Even better we should know the entire path that object would traverse over our heavens. Once we have an area of travel then we can focus instruments in that location. Who knows what type of signal they sent, radio, light, etc.

Unless I am mistaken, you would NOT search the same location for Radio as you would Light. I would assume that a LIGHT signal would appear to be closer to the source, while a Radio signal would be an Orphan. Am I totally off base here?

So in my opinion, if there's an credit to this WoW signal, some people have some crunching to do, and new data to collect after extrapolation of Gravitational fields, and Galactic movement.

I rarely Quote from Star-wars, but even Han Solo used the excuse that Light speed could not be engaged without computing the course first. Otherwise who knows what you might slam into.

Personally I think its Hilarious, every one wants to Listen to star in the sky for life. We are after all listening to where they WERE and not where they ARE.
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Message 1036763 - Posted: 29 Sep 2010, 0:56:08 UTC

The wow signal couldn't be traced back to any star, or other celestial object. They have listened many times since, at the same sky coordinates, but heard nothing. This should have worked if the signal was continuous, and from another solar system. We know of nothing that would have 'spoiled the aim'. There is always the possibility that it came from a space vessel traveling between the fixed stars. The signal was very strong, suggesting the possibility that the source was nearby. If this is the case, we have no way of accounting for the motions of the source since the signal was heard, or knowing where to look for it now, assuming it still happened to be transmitting, and in our direction. If the signal was from a fixed system, and not continuous, but repeated at some interval, as with a 360 degree sweep of the galactic plane, we would still have to know the period of repetition, or monitor the frequency continuously,until it appeared. Michael
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Message 1036874 - Posted: 29 Sep 2010, 9:43:55 UTC - in response to Message 1036753.  

We know where the stars are and where they were. The WOW signal displayed sidreal movement characteristics that account for the rotation of the Earth and the size of the antenna. Thus the signal diid not move--we did.
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Message 1042521 - Posted: 15 Oct 2010, 23:50:05 UTC - in response to Message 1027923.  

The Wikipedia article on the topic is moderately informative:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_Signal

And the same article's Talk page has some interesting musings and data:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wow!_signal

Compare that article with the article on Radio source SHGb02+14a, and you can see the impact that popular media attention can have on SETI:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_source_SHGb02%2B14a
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C Olival

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Message 1044116 - Posted: 23 Oct 2010, 22:14:47 UTC - in response to Message 1025075.  

Anyone studying intelligent alien life is, of course, aware of the famous wow signal. This non-terrestrial/non-solar system origin narrowband radio signal that lasted 72 seconds through Big Ear radio telescope has become proof to SETI community that intelligent life does exist elsewhere. One thing that has never been found though is a planet or object of origin. I have recently done a search of extrasolar planets (full planets outside our solar system) for planets near the source of the wow signal. There were about five stars with orbiting planets that fell eerily close to the right ascension and declination of the wow signal. These are MOA-2007-BLG-192L, HD 181720, HD 181342, HD 180902, and HD 179949. The reasons these may not match exactly with the wow signal could be many things. First of all, two different frequencies were taken down for the wow signal at 1420.356 and also at 14203.4556 MHz which could mean we don’t have the exact origin of the signal pinpointed. Another theory is that intelligent aliens may have sent the signal from a satellite to avoid interference from stars or to avoid sending it through their atmosphere. Either way it could be possible that whoever sent the wow message could have come from these planets. Additionally, the planet in MOA-2007-BLG-192L is the known earth sized extrasolar planet, and the stars in the others are F and G type stars similar to the Sun. It is very possible that one of these planets are home to a form of intelligent life. We will never know until more research has been done, but now we have a piece of the sky to look in.

Wow Signal:
19h 22m 24.64s right ascension -27*03’ declination
19h 25m 17.01s right ascension

MOA-2007-BLG-192L:
19h 08m 04s right ascension -27*09’ declination (earth sized planet thought to have ice)

HD 181720:
19h 22m 53s right ascension -32*55’09” declination (g type star)

HD 181342:
19h 21m 04s right ascension -23*37’10” declination (f type star)

HD 180902:
19h 19m 18s right ascension -23*33’29” declination

HD 179949:
19h 15m 33s right ascension -24*10’45” declination

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C Olival

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Message 1044117 - Posted: 23 Oct 2010, 22:16:17 UTC - in response to Message 1044116.  

1. χ¹ Sagittarii
2. χ² Sagittarii
3. χ³ Sagittarii

aperently the WOW signals came from the directions of theses stars, what is the possability of planets around these stars

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C Olival

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Message 1044119 - Posted: 23 Oct 2010, 22:22:04 UTC - in response to Message 1044116.  

sorry did not meant to post message from ID: 1044116, my second time in here, not familiar with this forum,sorry. i was trying to relpy to it and somehow posted it, my apologies.
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Message 1051052 - Posted: 25 Nov 2010, 8:30:57 UTC - in response to Message 1044117.  

The sagitarius stars are towards the center of the galaxy where stars are closer together. The shear distance involved the couldnt be much of a signal but a carrier wave. With all the rotational computations involved to align with the same spot in space. The rotation of the earth, the rotation of the planet around the sun and the sun in its motion relative to the galaxies rotation and its motion towards other galaxies. The wow signal could it be gravitational lensing from another star. reading up on the wow signal and backtracking no stars were in its postion in the sky.
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Message 1051370 - Posted: 26 Nov 2010, 19:36:15 UTC - in response to Message 1051052.  

If I remember correctly the signature of the WOW signal corresponded with the signal strength profile you would expect due to the Earth's rotation. This indicates that it was most likely coming from a fixed point out in space somewhere.

What does the signal show. Was there any modulation at all; was there any data carried by the signal.

If not, then would an alien intelligence send such a signal ??

Since the signal is on A Hydrogen line of emission--could there be some natural phenomenon that would exist involving hydrogen such as an exploding star emitting jets of hydrogen ??
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Message 1051383 - Posted: 26 Nov 2010, 20:36:06 UTC - in response to Message 1051370.  

The integration time of the receiver of the wow signal was 12 seconds. Any content shorter than that would have been averaged out to its mean signal intensity, during each 12 second period. Only six such time 'bins' were involved in the 72 seconds it took the source to pass through the receiving lobe of the telescope. Very hard to pick content of any sort out of *that*, unless each bit was 12 seconds long, or longer! The signal peaked at 30 sigma above background noise, so was quite strong. No nearby star or deep space object of note has been found at the wow signal coordinates, which seems odd if a natural astrophysical phenomenon was responsible. Michael
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Message 1051396 - Posted: 26 Nov 2010, 22:10:24 UTC - in response to Message 1051383.  

Thank you for your info. It appears as if it were a one- time occurence. 30 sigma suggests not a random occurence by far. What about a gamma ray burst--would it have power in the hydrogen spectrum. What was the bandwidth of the receiver ? What was the power spectrum of the signal ?
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Message 1051453 - Posted: 27 Nov 2010, 3:43:45 UTC - in response to Message 1051396.  
Last modified: 27 Nov 2010, 3:46:10 UTC

The bandwidth of the receiver was 500 KHz, centered on the neutral hydrogen line. There we 50 channels of 10 KHz each. The signal appeared in only one of these 10 KHz channels. This does not seem to accord with a very broadband signal extending downward in energy level from gamma rays into the radio range, such as might be the case with a gamma ray burst. The power of the signal varied over time in an essentially gaussian manner, the figures in each time integration bin being: 0, 7, 14, 27, 30, 19, 6, 0, expressed as multiples in strength over the background noise level. Michael
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Message 1051455 - Posted: 27 Nov 2010, 4:07:09 UTC - in response to Message 1051453.  
Last modified: 27 Nov 2010, 4:10:49 UTC

Interesting facts. looks like something related to the hydrogen line and not a noisy burst of broadband radiation. The fact that it appears to be a modestly skewed Gaussian Distribution suggests that it was a random process that produced the signal. Or am I incorrect in that this distribution might have resulted from the rotation of the antenna if the signal had a flat distribution. What do you think?
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