'Aliens' Could Come From Distant Star, Like The Sun

On the night of August 15, 1977, the Wow signal emitted a flash in the radio telescope. So far, scientists have determined its origin and suggest that it may come from a Sun-like star located 1,800 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

Alberto Caballero, an amateur astronomer, said SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, has been listening for possible messages from otherworldly creatures since the mid-20th century, according to NASA.

A Sun-like star in the constellation Sagittarius.

Appeared during a SETI search at Ohio State University's Big Ear telescope, Wow, was discovered by astronomer Jerry Ehman, and the signal is extremely powerful but very short, lasting only 1 minute. 12 seconds .

When he saw the print of this unusual signal, Ehman scribbled "Wow" on the paper and named the event Wow. The Big Ear Telescope has now been decoded to look for messages in the electromagnetic frequency band 1420.4056 megahertz, produced by the element hydrogen.

"Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, it is logical to assume that an intelligent civilization in our Milky Way galaxy might want to attract attention, so they could signal with or near the frequency of the neutral hydrogen line," Ehman wrote in his report.

However, astronomer Caballero said, the signal most likely came from some natural event and not aliens, although astronomers have ruled out several possible origins. out like a passing comet.

Caballero notes that, in our occasional attempts to greet extraterrestrials, humans mostly create one-off broadcasts, such as the Arecibo message sent to the globular cluster M13 in 1974. The Wow could be a similar signal.

Currently, the Big Ear telescope's two receivers are pointing towards the constellation Sagittarius, and astronomer Caballero decided to search the list of stars from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite for potential applications. viable candidate.

He said: 'I have specifically found a Sun-like star, an object denoted 2MASS 19281982-2640123 about 1,800 light-years away that has a temperature, diameter and luminosity close to that of the star. our companion star".

Given the results, he thinks, it might be a good idea to look for habitable planets and even extraterrestrial civilizations.