Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Alan McDougall on 17/11/2008 17:32:39
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Hi,
9 The Wow signal
IT WAS 37 seconds long and came from outer space. On 15 August 1977 it caused astronomer Jerry Ehman, then of Ohio State University in Columbus, to scrawl "Wow!" on the printout from Big Ear, Ohio State's radio telescope in Delaware. And 28 years later no one knows what created the signal. "I am still waiting for a definitive explanation that makes sense," Ehman says.
Coming from the direction of Sagittarius, the pulse of radiation was confined to a narrow range of radio frequencies around 1420 megahertz. This frequency is in a part of the radio spectrum in which all transmissions are prohibited by international agreement. Natural sources of radiation, such as the thermal emissions from planets, usually cover a much broader sweep of frequencies. So what caused it?
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The only solution of this problem is to keep listening and analysing the results in more sophisticated ways and accept that that particular signal my never be fully explained. Becoming obsessed with one possibly positive result is silly.
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There was an ambiguous radio event in the thirties when radio echos were received with a delay of about 20 seconds that has never been adequately explained
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Any more info about that?
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SC
It was first observed in 1927, there are several discussions and possible explanations listed below
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~sverre/LDE/
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That's a good read. Thanks.
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I heard the wow signal was traced to a faulty microwave oven
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That sounds very unlikely, radiation from a microwave oven would have a very strong 50/60 Hz modulation that would be immediately recognised.
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Possibly the same processes which create Gamma Ray bursts...
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous electromagnetic events occurring in the universe since the Big Bang. They are flashes of gamma rays emanating from seemingly random places in deep space at random times. The duration of a gamma-ray burst is typically a few seconds, but can range from a few milliseconds to several minutes, and the initial burst is usually followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitting at longer wavelengths (X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray_burst
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Well the proof that the is definitely highly intelligent life out in the universe is that no one has visited us [;)] [;D]
Alan
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That argument works both ways. If one is to believe the 'abduction victims' in the US then it would also appear that there is no intelligent life out there, because only REALLY dumb aliens would want to stick probes up those dingbats. [;D]
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1927. microwave ovens?
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1927. microwave ovens?
They fell off the alien spaceship [:D]
In any case, the signal referred to as the WOW signal was in 1977, well after the 1st microwave oven was built.
from http://www.blurtit.com/q259288.html (http://www.blurtit.com/q259288.html)
On 8th October, 1945, Percy Spencer invented the microwave with building magnetrons for radar sets. It was the item when he was working on an active radar set and at the point of time there was an ice cream in his pocket which began to melt. It was due to the microwaves that the ice cream melted. So the company built the first microwave in the year 1947 and named it Radarange. This microwave was 6 feet tall (1.8m) and it weighed almost 340 kgs (750 pounds). It was water-cooled and created 3000 watts, which is about three times the sum of energy produced by microwave ovens today.
With this invention the first thing that was cooked in the microwave was popcorn and the second was an egg.
What kind of idiot would put an ice-cream in his pocket!?
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I got the 1927 from Syphrum's post.
But then there's the issue of the raw AC modulated RF somehow announcing its terrestrial origin.