Harvard astronomer and alien hunter Avi Loeb has floated a bold new idea about the legendary “Wow Signal.” In a recent blog post, he suggested that the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, now passing through our solar system, might have been the source of the mysterious radio burst picked up by Ohio State’s Big Ear telescope on August 15, 1977
The Wow Signal was recorded at Right Ascension (RA)=19h25m=291 degrees and Declination (Dec)=-27 degrees.
At nearly the same time, on August 12, 1977, 3I/ATLAS was about 600 astronomical units (AU) from Earth, some 600 times the Earth–Sun distance, or roughly a 3-day light-travel time away. Its position then was RA 19h40m (295°degrees), Dec -19 degrees.
Here’s the intriguing part: just three days before the signal was detected, ATLAS had been moving through nearly the same patch of space. The separation was only about 4 degree in RA and 8 degree in Dec, an alignment chance of just 0.6%.
If the signal really came from 31/ATLAS, its transmitter would have needed the power of a nuclear reactor, beaming directly on the 1420 MHz hydrogen line, the frequency often dubbed the “cosmic calling card.”
While it may seem far-fetched that 3I/ATLAS could have sent the Wow Signal, the object’s unusual behavior so far means nothing can be completely ruled out. Perhaps it’s worth scanning 3I/ATLAS for radio emissions.
In time, we’re likely to learn much more about whether 3I/ATLAS is simply an odd interstellar comet or something far more advanced which could catch us off guard.