Nonetheless, as Caballero identified in his research, 2MASS 19281982-2640123 wasn’t the one attainable supply of the WOW! sign. He highlighted one other 66 stars in roughly the identical route as robust potential candidates.
Caballero tells Astronomy that the latest radio telescope observations of 2MASS 19281982-2640123 had been precisely what he’d hoped for when he carried out his preliminary research. “It was very thrilling to be taught that the SETI neighborhood heard me and took motion,” he says. “That was the principle aim of my paper.”
Caballero additionally says that the Breakthrough Hear search was “exhaustive,” which means that though it solely lasted just a few hours, it has successfully dominated out 2MASS 19281982-2640123 because the supply of the WOW! sign.
Future searches, Caballero provides, could be properly suggested to first decide if there are any doubtlessly liveable planets orbiting candidate stars that could be the supply of the WOW! sign. If that’s the case, then researchers might choose to hold out radio observations of these star programs first.
Might the WOW! sign have come from close to Earth?
There’s additionally the possibility that the WOW! sign didn’t originate round a distant star in any respect. As an example, maybe the sign was so robust as a result of it got here from one thing a lot nearer to Earth.
In 2016, astrophysicist Antonio Paris of St. Petersburg School in Florida proposed that the WOW! sign might have come from comet 266P/Christensen, which hadn’t been catalogued on the time. This concept doesn’t maintain water to some scientists, together with Farah. However Paris tells Astronomy he stands by his idea that the WOW! sign may need been brought on by a comet, or that it was a one-time burst of cosmic radiation.
However both means, he says he’s simply excited that individuals are nonetheless making an attempt to determine it out.
“It’s nice to see others are trying to unravel one of many biggest puzzles in astronomical historical past,” he says. “The seek for the elusive Wow! sign continues!”
