2MASS 19281982-2640123 is a Sun-like star located in the area of Sagittarius constellation where the Wow! Signal is most widely believed to have originated.[1][2] The star was identified in a 2022 paper as the most similar to the Sun out of the three solar analogs found inside the sky region.[3][4] The star is 1,800 light years away; this is approximately 132 light years away from Claudio Maccone's estimation of where the closest communicative civilization to Earth is most likely to exist per his calculated solution to the Drake Equation.[5]
The star has a right ascension of 19h 28m 19.8s, a declination of -26° 40' 12.59", an estimated temperature of 5,783 Kelvin, a radius of 0.99 solar radii, and a luminosity 1.0007 times that of the Sun.[6] The team used the Gaia Archive to identify another dozen of candidates to be Sun-like stars, but the estimations on their luminosity were unknown.[7]
Breakthrough listen search edit
As a response to the discovery, on May 21, 2022 Breakthrough Listen conducted the first targeted search for the Wow! Signal to find its source.[8] It also was its first collaboration between the Green Bank Telescope and the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) of the SETI Institute.[9]
Greenbank performed two 30-minute observations, the ATA did six 5-minute observations with its new beam-former backend, and both observatories observed a total of 9 minutes and 40 seconds at the same time.[10] The team used the turboSETI pipeline from 1–2 GHz to search for an artificial narrowband signal (2.79 Hz/1.91 Hz) with a drifting of ±4 Hz s−1.[11] No technosignature candidates were reportedly found.[12]
References edit
- ^ Adam Mann (2022-05-24). "Famous 'alien' Wow! signal may have come from distant, sunlike star". Space.com. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
- ^ "Sun-like star identified as the potential source of the Wow! Signal". Astronomy.com. November 23, 2020. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
- ^ "Astronomer may have detected the source of the famous extraterrestrial 'Wow!' signal". The Independent. 2022-05-25. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
- ^ "Did the Wow! signal come from this star? | Space | EarthSky". earthsky.org. 2020-12-02. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
- ^ "An Introduction to the Statistical Drake Equation". Treath Report.
- ^ Caballero, Alberto (2022). "An approximation to determine the source of the WOW! Signal". International Journal of Astrobiology. 21 (3): 129–136. arXiv:2011.06090. Bibcode:2022IJAsB..21..129C. doi:10.1017/S1473550422000015. ISSN 1473-5504. S2CID 226307031.
- ^ Choi, Charles Q. "45 years later, scientists hone in on[sic] a mysterious alien signal's origin". Inverse. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
- ^ "1st Coordinated Green Bank Telescope/Allen Telescope Array Observes Possible Source of the WOW! Signal". SETI Institute.
- ^ Elizabeth Howell (2022-11-07). "No signs of alien life found near source of famous 'Wow!' signal". Space.com. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
- ^ "Breakthrough Listen Search for the WOW! Signal". seti.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
- ^ Perez, Karen I.; Farah, Wael; Sheikh, Sofia Z.; Croft, Steve; Siemion, Andrew; Pollak, Alexander W.; Brzycki, Bryan; Cruz, Luigi F.; Czech, Daniel; DeBoer, David; Drew, Jamie; Gajjar, Vishal; Garrett, Michael A.; Isaacson, Howard; Lebofsky, Matt (2022-09-26). "Breakthrough Listen Search for the WOW! Signal*". Research Notes of the AAS. 6 (9): 197. Bibcode:2022RNAAS...6..197P. doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ac9408. ISSN 2515-5172. S2CID 252540293.
- ^ "EarthSky | The Wow! Signal: New search comes up empty". earthsky.org. 2022-10-02. Retrieved 2022-11-13.