The legendary radio signal from deep space, recorded almost 50 years ago, turned out to be significantly stronger than previously thought. A new digital analysis of 75,000 pages of archived data from the "Big Ear" telescope allowed scientists to recalculate the intensity of the burst and refine its characteristics. This is reported by Indian Defense Review, writes UNN.
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A research team led by Abel Mendez from the University of Puerto Rico carried out monumental work to digitize the 1977 paper printouts. Thanks to modern computational methods, it was established that the peak signal density exceeded 250 Jansky. This makes it one of the most powerful narrowband bursts ever recorded within the hydrogen line (1420 MHz).
The updated analysis also refined the signal frequency to 1420.726 MHz. This almost perfectly matches the hydrogen line, which astronomers have long considered the most likely channel for interstellar communication due to its universality in the Universe.
The origin of the signal remains a mystery
Despite narrowing down the probable coordinates of the source in the constellation Sagittarius, scientists still cannot explain the nature of the signal. The study confirmed that "Wow!" had a perfect Gaussian profile, which is characteristic of a signal from a distant cosmic source, and not of random terrestrial noise or interference from satellites.
Scientists ruled out the possibility of radio wave reflection from the Moon or accidental hardware failures. The signal lasted 72 seconds and never recurred. The preservation of the original printouts by volunteers for decades allowed science in 2026 to revisit the question: was this burst the first recorded message from an extraterrestrial civilization.