A new study proposes that the mysterious ‘Wow! signal’, once thought to be a possible alien broadcast, could be the result of a rare cosmic event involving a magnetar and a hydrogen cloud. This explanation is supported by the discovery of similar signals in archival data from the Arecibo Observatory.
A recent search for extraterrestrial signals using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Australia, focused on 1,317 galaxies in the constellation Vela, yielded no detections. However, the study provides valuable constraints on the power of potential alien transmitters, suggesting that any civilization capable of sending signals strong enough for us to detect would need to harness the power of a star or multiple stars. This null detection further emphasizes the vastness of the search space and the need for continued exploration across a wide range of frequencies.
