Quick Poll. The WOW signal...

OK since it was mentioned in another thread I thought I'd throw up a very quick snap poll on this..

Do you think the famous "WOW Signal" was an actual signal of non terrestrial origin or fluke of nature?

I'd love to see how people vote, and thoughts people have on this event.

Wiki article on this for those that might not know what I am talking about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

 

Non terrestrial in nature. A natural signal would have lasted if it was coming from a star or other natural phenom.

The same with KIC's signal.

The question is do both signals from Wow! and KIC reside within the same zone of influence much like a habitable zone for a planet would around a Sun?

 

Where's the options for a signal of terrestrial origin or I just don't know?

Anyway, the most interesting things about the WOW! signal, apart from its S/N ratio, are its frequency being very close to that of the hydrogen line and the narrow bandwidth. The shape and duration of the signal do suggest an extraterrestrial origin, perhaps from a powerful hydrogen maser source. Unfortunately, it was never observed reoccurring from the same point in the sky. I don't know if anyone also tried looking at a transcendental number (such as pi or e) multiple of the frequency.

 

I deliberately didn't include that option in the poll. But I am curious about some of the voting choices already made. Most interesting.

I really do think it was artificial in nature. I think the KIC signal or whatever was also artificial. I can't explain why or with any solid reasoning other then how I feel ..

 

I don't know? Enough information simply doesn't exist.

 

Space candy....Never ask me to vote in a poll when I'm hungry.

 

Actually it's interesting that 4 people think this was a pure fluke of nature.

A natural one off occurence. I can actually buy into that. I don't mind that.

 

Probably an astrophysical maser that behaves similarly to a hydrogen maser? The time signature suggests a narrowband microwave source that passed through the main lobe of the antenna pattern due to the Earth's rotation.

 

I have refrained from seriously participating in these threads for a while now, on the belief that my personal skepticism -- and personal beliefs -- about cosmology are teetering dangerously close to crackpottery and this forum has too much of that already.

I will say, however, that IMO there are certain scientific fields cursed with an inherent shortage of empirical evidence, to such a degree that the lack of evidence has become normalized and researchers in those fields are free to supply speculation, imagination or just outright bafoonery as if it were fact. I believe that cosmology is such a field, and that astronomy -- at least where it shares a border with astrophysics -- has this feature as well.

So I'm voting for "fluke of nature" simply because that is an expansive enough answer for what it will likely turn out to be. But my real answer is we don't understand the cosmos nearly enough to find an answer at this point, and we don't have enough data about the signal to speculate anyway.

So my preferred answer is:

Another vote for "space candy"...

 

That was a waste of effort, wasn't it.

 

I really do appreciate your post, and that you took the time to write down some thoughts. I wish this place had a rep system as I'd use that..

BTW that last photo wow .. LOL Great idea for a photo shoot. Thanks

 

The "Wow" Transmission was in 1977

I believe it was the collective excretatory noises of a Civilization that finally received our television transmissions of the following shows from the '70s:

Chips
The Jeffersons
Charlie's Angels
Different Strokes
...and, of course, Welcome Back, Kotter.

Interestingly enough, in a little-revealed fact, if you look down the "Wow" printout and translate certain columns into ASCII, the translation reads,

"But we really like "Sanford and Son".

True Fact!

 

Seems legit

 

LOL I thought they'd really like Charlie's Angels... For hell those women were cute.

 

The message says: "Ceci n'est pas un signal". It turns out they're Belgian Surrealists. Who would have guessed?

 

It was just a mic drop.

 

Alien Rock and Roll!!!

<check...test...check, check...sssibilus, sibilus...

(((((((PLEASE GET OFF THE SCAFFOLDING!!!...WE CANNOT START THE CONCERT UNTIL YOU ARE OFF THE SCAFFOLDING!)))))))

 

1000 likes

 

Wow! That's a lot! Thanks!

 

It's the actual real life concert of that band Disaster Area and their stunt ship is about to dive into the sun only it went cockup and blew their sun up and the planet ...