New Results on the Extraterrestrial Mysterious Wow! Signal

Arecibo Wow! (AWOW) is a technosignature research project, which utilizes archived data from the Arecibo Observatory’s telescopes to investigate the nature of signals similar to the famous Wow! Signal detected in 1977 by Ohio State University’s

By The UFO Chronicles 8-26-2025

Big Ear radio telescope. The project aims to both identify these signals and provide robust astrophysical explanations for their origins, thereby contributing to the ongoing search for extraterrestrial intelligence and clarifying the causes of technosignature false positives.

The original Wow! Signal, characterized by pronounced intensity and narrow bandwidth near the 1420 MHz hydrogen line, has intrigued scientists for decades due to its apparent artific and inability to be replicated in subsequent observations. Despite many follow-up efforts, the source or mechanism behind this signal remained elusive, fueling speculation about its extraterrestrial provenance.

AWOW builds on the context of the Ohio State observations by applying similar methods, frequencies, and bandwidths to archived data from Arecibo’s 305-meter and 12-meter telescopes, focusing on drift scans conducted between February and May 2020 at 1420 MHz. The primary goal is to locate and analyze signals possessing the same narrowband characteristics as the Wow! Signal to determine their likely astrophysical origins.

To the dismay of UFO or ET hypothesis mavens the project’s first results report the detection of several narrowband (≤10 kHz) signals proximate to the hydrogen line, echoing the Wow! Signal’s qualities yet two orders of magnitude less intense and present in various sky locations. However, further analysis identifies these signals as emissions from small interstellar clouds of cold atomic hydrogen (HI) located within our galaxy. The research proposes that transient astronomical events, specifically bursts of radiation such as magnetar flares or soft gamma repeaters (SGRs), can trigger a sudden brightness in the hydrogen line, potentially producing a maser flare or emission through superradiance mechanisms. These natural phenomena match all observed characteristics of the Wow! Signal.

The main hypothesis championed by the AWOW team is that the original Wow! Signal was not evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence but rather a consequence of a hydrogen maser-like flare in a cold HI cloud, caused by a powerful transient source such as a magnetar. Crucially, the trigger beam responsible for the event may go undetected due to variables like distance and angle of emission. This framework offers a comprehensive astrophysical explanation, introduces a new class of false positives for technosignature searches, and suggests the Wow! Signal may be the inaugural documented astronomical maser flare at the hydrogen line.

AWOW’s systematic analysis covered observed targets such as Teegarden’s Star, Luyten’s Star, Barnard’s Star, Ross 128, TRAPPIST-1, Proxima Centauri, Tau Ceti, and K2-18. The team, comprised of scientists from multiple institutions, intends to expand on these findings with future publications and continued data analysis. Star maps created as part of the project detail the locations of potentially habitable worlds and key technosignature events, integrating resources from NASA and the PHL Habitable Worlds Catalog.

The AWOW project advances understanding of the Wow! Signal’s origins by presenting a credible astrophysical explanation grounded in archival data and theoretical modeling. By attributing the signal to stimulated hydrogen emission triggered by rare astronomical events, the researchers provide a significant paradigm shift for technosignature detection methodology and highlight the complex interplay between natural phenomena and search protocols for intelligent life.

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Mystery Signal From Deep Space, Nick-Named 'WOW' May Have Answer

Amateur astronomer and YouTuber Alberto Caballero, one of the founders of The Exoplanets Channel, has found a small amount of evidence for a source of the notorious Wow! signal. In his paper uploaded to the arXiv preprint server, Caballero

By Bob Yirka Phys.org 11-24-20

describes searching the Gaia database for possible sun-like stars that might host an exoplanet capable of supporting intelligent life.

[...]

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WOW Signal: Was It Aliens Or Just a Comet?

There’s no such thing as a “close call” in SETI – either the radio telescope has picked up an alien signal, or it hasn’t. “Close” doesn’t exist in this one-bit experiment, any more than it does in pregnancy.

By Seth Shostak www.seti.org 6-13-17

[...]

... At close to midnight on August 15, 1977, the massive radio telescope of the Ohio State University, known to its friends as the Big Ear, recorded a signal so impressive to the astronomer examining the instrument’s logs, he wrote “Wow!” on the computer printout.

It had all the characteristics one would anticipate from a signal produced by a deep space transmitter. This agreement with hopeful expectation, coupled with the undoubted appeal of the signal’s beguiling moniker, led to many efforts to find the WOW signal a second time. These attempts were made on such radio telescopes as the Very Large Array in New Mexico and, of course, the Big Ear itself. However, the result was always the same: radio silence.

[...]

But a paper published more than a year ago by Antonio Paris and Evan Davies makes a different claim: a natural solution to the puzzle of the WOW signal. It wasn’t earthly interference, problems with the equipment, or even ET; it was natural radio emission from hydrogen gas streaming off a nearby comet. ...

The comet hypothesis, in my opinion, doesn’t work....

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Alien Argument for 'WOW' Signal Continues ...

An astronomer thinks he's pinpointed the source of a mysterious radio signal from space: a passing comet that nobody knew about. But his colleagues said they're still skeptical of the explanation, noting that comets don't emit radio waves in the right way.

By Jesse Emspak Space.com 6-13-17

[...]

Yet several astronomers, including Ehman, think Paris is wrong about the comet....

"We should have seen the source come through twice in about 3 minutes: one response lasting 72 seconds and a second response for 72 seconds following within about a minute and a half," Ehman told Live Science. "We didn't see the second one."

The only way that can happen, he said, is if the signal was cut off abruptly. A comet wouldn't produce that kind of signal, because the gases that surround them cover large, diffuse areas. Nor would the comet have escaped from the radio telescope's field of view that fast.

[...]

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Mysterious 'Wow' Signal Not From Aliens, Argues Astronomer

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By Devin Coldewey
www.nbcnews.com
1-11-16

      A powerful radio signal received from space in 1977 and never explained may have been the result of a then-unknown comet, not extraterrestrials, an astronomer proposes in a new paper.

The "Wow! signal" is named after what astronomer Jerry Ehman wrote ("Wow!") next to the paper readout of the radio telescope that recorded it. The signal was very powerful and emanated briefly from a single point in the sky, right at a wavelength many have suggested would be a natural one for extraterrestrial life to transmit in [....]

But Antonio Paris at St. Petersburg College in Florida has found that two comets, yet to be identified in 1977, were in just the right position, and due to their halo of hydrogen might have given off energy in the right wavelength. [...]

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Multiple Anomaly Detection & Automatic Recording (MADAR)

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Reinvigorated by the 'Wow!'

By Billy Cox De Void 3-21-14

      Last month — Feb. 19, at 3:30 p.m. to be exact — Fran Ridge donned his UFO-detective hat after hanging it up more than two decades ago. He says the inspiration is the quasi-recent discovery of his unwitting link to the signal event of radioastronomy’s SETI program — the iconic “Wow!” moment.

Ridge’s platform is a geek’s dream called the Multiple Anomaly Detection and Automatic Recording or, more precisely, the MADAR-27. He operates this UFO early warning system out of his home in rural Mount Vernon, Ind. From an outsider’s POV, this rascal looks loaded.

Primed to acquire, record and display the sort electromagnetic data and compass-needle effects associated with UFO incidents dating back to the 1950s, MADAR-27’s tripwire is a sensitive magnet variometer, which runs 24/7. Upon sensing a fluctuation in the local environment, the system activates a mode-control panel that, among other things, alerts the operator, green-lights a Geiger counter, converts live electromagnetic readings to visual pulses, and archives the entire event.

Ridge, site coordinator of the NICAP web page, which includes voluminous raw UFO incident data, assembled and worked MADAR-27’s predecessor beginning in 1970. Adjusting for natural background effects, Ridge recalls how “Some people said it was so sensitive it’d be going off constantly, but that didn’t happen.” In fact, over 21 years, he was able to document 24 ostensibly unnatural events. He bailed in ‘91 and summarized his findings in an obscure 1994 book called Regional Encounters: The SC Files.

And that was all she wrote, at least until 2010. That’s when a colleague drew his attention to a fascinating coincidence involving Ohio State’s Big Ear Radio Telescope in Delaware, Ohio, some 310 miles from Mount Vernon, in the summer of 1977. On Aug. 15 that year, radioastronomer Jerry Ehman, volunteering in Big Ear’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, scanned routine printouts from the night before and skidded to a stop. He scribbled “Wow!” in the margins beside an apparent signal code from the hydrogen band that lasted 72 seconds, consistent with the coverage window afforded by Earth’s rotation. In the 2010 email, one Byron Weber informed Ridge the “Wow!” occurred at the same time MADAR was logging a more localized anomaly.

Ridge reviewed the data from 1977. A six-week span during that Son of Sam summer had been MADAR’s most productive period when, during a sighting wave, it recorded seven disturbances, the last of which involved a 3-minute, 29-second pulsebeat, beginning at 10:14 p.m., Aug. 15. The Big Ear dish clocked the “Wow” at 10:16 p.m.

After repeatedly failing to reacquire the signal, which initially appeared to emanate from the constellation Saggitarius, SETI suggested Big Ear got tripped up on Earth-based or space-debris clutter. But in 2007, Ehman had eliminated those suspects to his satisfaction and wrote “The origin of the Wow! signal is still an open question for me.”

Jazzed over the connection — MADAR also detected background radiation readings that were twice the normal levels for 8/15/77 — Ridge reached out to SETI in an effort compare notes. Results: predictable.

“They wouldn’t talk to me, and I can sort of understand that, they don’t want to get involved with ufologists,” Ridge says. “But I think they should’ve been interested in corroborating data because this wasn’t a UFO incident per se. The fact that they picked it up at the same time suggests the disturbance was spread out over a wide area.”

Anyway, Fran Ridge is back online now, and with MADAR-27’s digital technology humming along, its capacity is orders of magnitude better than its 20th-century predecessor. The system isn’t portable, but Ridge hopes to create a nationwide network at some point with the introduction of smartphone apps.

“This is an open-ended project,” he says. “I’m 71 years old now and I’m hoping something important happens. I think I’ve earned it.”

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The 'Wow!' Signal: One Man's Search for SETI's Most Tantalizing Trace of Alien Life

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By Ross Andersen
The Atlantic
2-16-12

For decades, Robert Gray has been trying to duplicate the most surprising and still-unexplained observation in the history of the search for extraterrestrial life.

     Late one night in the summer of 1977, a large radio telescope outside Delaware, Ohio intercepted a radio signal that seemed for a brief time like it might change the course of human history. The telescope was searching the sky on behalf of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the signal, though it lasted only seventy-two seconds, fit the profile of a message beamed from another world. Despite its potential import, several days went by before Jerry Ehman, a project scientist for SETI, noticed the data. He was flipping through the computer printouts generated by the telescope when he noticed a string of letters within a long sequence of low numbers---ones, twos, threes and fours. The low numbers represent background noise, the low hum of an ordinary signal. As the telescope swept across the sky, it momentarily landed on something quite extraordinary, causing the signal to surge and the computer to shift from numbers to letters and then keep climbing all the way up to "U," which represented a signal thirty times higher than the background noise level. Seeing the consecutive letters, the mark of something strange or even alien, Ehman circled them in red ink and wrote "Wow!" thus christening the most famous and tantalizing signal of SETI's short history: The "Wow!" signal.


Despite several decades of searching, by amateur and professional astronomers alike, the "Wow!" signal has never again been found. In his new book, The Elusive Wow, amateur astronomer Robert Gray tells the story of the "Wow!" signal, and of astronomy's quest to solve the puzzle of its origin. It's a story he is well-positioned to tell. That's because Gray has been the "Wow!" signal's most devoted seeker and chronicler, having traveled to the very ends of the earth in search of it. Gray has even co-authored several scientific articles about the "Wow!" signal, including a paper detailing his use of the Very Large Array Radio Observatory in New Mexico to search for it. I spoke with Gray about the "Wow!" signal, radio telescopes, and the economics of prospective extraterrestrial civilizations.

From a technical standpoint, what makes the "Wow!" signal so extraordinary?

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