‘Wow!’ signal

[deanm]

"Antonio Paris says he’s cracked the mysterious alien ‘Wow!’ signal"

"..if the theory did test right with the return of the comets, it was worthy of a Nobel prize..."

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/mosi-professor-antonio-paris-says-hes-cracked-the-mysterious-alien-wow-signal/news-story/cc2e563b44ef61ef9a15f4d9c5a65ca9

I rather think not - it's a likely useful observation-based clarification of a phenomenon, but doesn't really advance man- (whoops, sorry!) 'personkind' !

Dean

[astroron]

I am not aware that comets even give of a radio signal, and even if they did,one signal for seventy seconds then nothing:shrug:
It would be still in that part of the sky for many days
What phenomena would make a comet give of a radio signal.?
It is a piece of rock and ice ?
Cheers:thumbsup:

[bojan]

It could have been be a thermal radiation from a comet (?), that entered FOV of the radio telescope... Perhaps I am just rambling nonsense here because I don't know the details of the observation (received signal level in particular).
There is no need to wait for that comet really - any comet at similar distance from us and the Sun, at similar temperature would do to test this thermal hypthesis.
Even calculation/simulation would be sufficient for the good indicative answer...

[astroron]

Would Thermal radiation give off radio signals in the 21cm band for just 70 seconds then not be heard of again?

[bojan]

I imagine it is possible that the object was in the FOV of the radio telescope for only 70 seconds.. I don't know how wide was FOV of that antenna, but if it was narrow.. and if object (comet?) was moving very fast.. than maybe yes.

[rustigsmed]

the FOV is really the big question as the minute or so seems quite a long time...

[Somnium]

this should help


The 1415 MHz receiver used a parametric amplifier, cooled with liquid nitrogen. System noise temperature was 120 Kelvin, the bandwidth was 8 MHz, and the integration time was typically 12 seconds, with an RMS noise of .025 Kelvin. Antenna efficiency was 40% to 50%. Sources were identified down to .25 Janskys (a measure of radio power). Beam resolution at 1415 MHz was 8 to 10 arc minutes in right ascension by 40 arc minutes in declination

[KenGee]

Never a good idea to get Science news from the "news" they butcher it every time. I also just hate it when theory is used instead of conjecture!