(Credit: Wikimedia Commons) For 72 seconds in 1977, the Big Ear radio telescope recorded a powerful signal streaming from the area of globular cluster M55 in Sagittarius. To Ohio State astronomer Jerry Ehman, a SETI volunteer at the time, it seemed like the exact kind of alien message he’d been searching for. Its frequency near the hydrogen line matched a strong range that extraterrestrials might use to communicate over the vast reaches of space. Ehman circled the signal on a printout and scrawled “Wow!”
Despite many searches, the so-called Wow! signal was never observed again. In the intervening decades, astronomers have ruled out Earthly-origins like a passing satellite, or even nearby asteroids or planets. The lasting unsolved mystery has provided decades of fodder for science fiction writers and late-night alien TV shows. But an astronomer at Florida’s St. Petersburg College, Antonio Paris, came up with a potential solution earlier this ...
