Astronomers have scanned the space region believed to be the source of the mysterious “Wow!” signal.
In 1977, a strange signal received by the Big Ear radio telescope excited many researchers. It took astronomers 45 years to accurately locate the source of this broadcast.
In May 2022, it was finally discovered that it came from a sun-like star in the constellation Sagittarius, nearly 1,800 light-years from Earth.
According to scientists, the signal “Wow!” could talk about the existence of intelligent life in the Universe and therefore was studied by SETI experts who were trying to find intelligent life forms in space.
Now astronomers have scanned an area in the constellation of Sagittarius, but they have been unable to find any evidence of a signal source.
Project contributor Wael Farah told Space.com that the collaboration holds promise for other searches for intelligent alien life beyond Earth.
“This does not only include the Wow! signal uncertainty region … but extends to areas on the sky where stellar densities are high, like the galactic center and galactic disc,” he added.
In September, astronomers took a deep scan of an area of the sky believed to be the source of the “Wow!” signal. For observations, the team used the Green Bank Telescope and the Allen Telescope of the SETI Institute.
Although the observations have not revealed the source of the technosignal, astronomers hope that there are many more possible places where the signal could have originated.
The mysterious radio signal was received by the Big Ear radio telescope on August 15, 1977. Astronomer Jerry R. Ehman discovered the anomaly a few days later while reviewing the recorded data.
He was so impressed by the result that he circled on the computer printout the reading of the signal’s intensity, “6EQUJ5”, and wrote the comment “Wow!” beside it, leading to the event’s widely used name.
