The Wow Signal Potentially Explained ... and it's Weird

An exploration of new work done at Arecibo regarding the infamous Wow! Signal of 1977 that seems to account for all aspects of the observed signal but turned out to be a very strange natural event that isn't likely to repeat often that is analogous to a lightning flash in a hydrogen cloud in interstellar space.

My Patreon Page:

My Event Horizon Channel:

Links:

My Event Horizon Interview with Dr. Jerry Ehman, one of the 1977 discoverers of the Wow! Signal.

The Arecibo Wow Signal Project, papers available there:

Luke Lockhart's Podcast Interview with JMG

Music:

Intermission in D by Miguel Johnson

[LukeLockhartPod]

I can't believe it took 50 years, that's insane.
Thanks for taking the time to sit down for an Episode on my Podcast, JMG!

[kellyblack]

JMG your content is the high point of my life right now. No family and live way out in the woods. Times and life are incredibly hard right now, and your shows are one of the few things I look forward to every day. Thank you for your colossal efforts. 🙏🏼

[MetastaticMaladies]

Just wanted to say this in case anyone doesn’t know because John didn’t say anything about it in this video, but this guy interviewed the man that discovered the Wow signal, Jerry R. Ehman, in 2019. Just thought that’s cool.

[TyMoore]

A really, really interesting explaination of the famous "Wow" signal. So a Magnatar's energetic burst can stimulate a fairly coherent emission in a molecular cloud of hydrogen, a small and fairly dense (but not too dense) cloud, drifting just slightly in our direction. It does seem to check all the boxes. And explains why it never repeated.
The Universe is strange, amazing, beautiful, and mysterious!

[bloemundude]

Great video, but I'm sticking with my theory that a Wookiee butt-dialed Earth. It's Occam's electric razor: "The coolest sounding explanation is the only one worth believing."

[koreyjeffers]

The lightning and clouds analogy sold it for me

[gewitterhund]

"It wasn't aliens" is always a good starting point when conjecturing about such events.
You are rarely disappointed that way.

[Italianjedi]

I always had a feeling it was natural. The most BORING solution is usually the correct one.

[jota]

What I've always found an interesting coincidence is that both Voyagers- Voyager 2 on August 20th and Voyager 1 on September 5th- were launched shortly after the Wow! signal was received on August 15th, 1977. Along with "Star Wars" playing everywhere, the Summer of 1977 was a great time to be a space-obsessed teenager.

[reinholdw]

I just started this, and I'm afraid you're going to say it's definitely not aliens....

[bipolarminddroppings]

It's always been likely that the wow signal would be something mundane.

Let's all be honest, if we ever do contact aliens it will probably be blindingly obvious.

[timewave]

Just yesterday I watched JMG's year-old video about being alone in the universe being scarier than the dark forest. Now this.

[timedeathe]

You should have over a million for the content you make at this point

[BarderBetterFasterStronger]

Bless this channel. Please never sell out, and never compromise.

[bobdrooples]

And yet we've sent messages for potential aliens, that...
a) don't repeat
b) aren't at the hydrogen line

[johntimberlake]

As Sagan said of Kepler: 'He preferred the truth to his dearest illusions...that is the work of science'

[rhaedas]

I never thought it was intelligent simply because it's just a pure signal with no information. As you'd expect something naturally produced to give out. We just couldn't come up with a source that fit.

[paulm]

That it took 50 years to come up with a plausible, _natural_ explanation of this event shows that we humans work at lightning speed - compared to the age of the Cosmos. 😉

Thanks for taking the time to make this video!

[arnelilleseter]

I'm not one of those who love mysteries. I want answers, I want to know how the world works.
The Wow signal is one of those things I hoped would be figured out in my lifetime. Allthough it is not a definitive answer it is a plausible explanation. I can live with that.

[rohanmalik]

I've already decided it's an alien calling me about my car warranty, sorry.