Wow! signal: Astronomer turns to crowdfunding to resolve space mystery

[Rev Jones]

An American astronomy professor has turned to crowdfunding to further his research into what happened to the elusive Wow! signal.

Wow! is the word the astronomer Jerry Ehman wrote in his notes when he first observed the signal nearly 40 years ago.



It has piqued the interest of astronomers and alien-believers ever since.

It was August 15, 1977 and Mr Ehman was using a radio telescope, sweeping the sky for possible signs of alien life.

For 72 seconds he observed a signal.

"There was basically a burst, a signal that appeared in the telescope and then disappeared again," Sydney Institute for Astronomy astrophysicist Professor Geraint Lewis said.

The narrowband radio signal stunned astronomers at the time.

"The structure in that signal basically didn't fit with any simple ideas we had for what should have been in the sky at the time."

While getting signals from outer space is not entirely unusual, this one has never been seen again.

"The favourite one is that this is an extra terrestrial signal that we've picked up," Professor Lewis said.

"But of course, we could pick just about anything we see in the sky and can't quite explain and say it's aliens."

He said there are other possible explanations for the signal's source.

"There's been a suggestion the signal is actually produced by something relatively local, such as comets crashing together releases a burst energy that would have produced the signal," Professor Lewis said.

Crowdfunding takes off in science

The comet theory is exactly what Professor Antonio Paris, an astrophysicist at St Petersburg College in the US, is hoping to prove.

He said he believed two comets were in the vicinity of a star formation near where the signal came from, back in 1977.

The theory is that the hydrogen gas that surrounds those two comets created the signal.

To prove that, he needed a radio telescope to observe them as they pass that same grouping of stars again in 2017 and 2018.

He said he needed almost $20,000 to purchase and install a 3-metre radio telescope, and without any forthcoming grants, he has turned to crowdfunding to buy it.

"It's fantastic," said Ben McNeil, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales and a supporter of alternative sources to government grants.

"I think crowdfunding has really taken off for most creative industries over the last six-odd years."

With hundreds of jobs at Australia's principal science and research centre, the CSIRO, about to be scrapped, finding alternative sources of grants is becoming increasingly critical.

"For younger scientists, if you're pushing a really breakthrough idea which is risky, for female scientists, for anyone who has career breaks, the funding situation is really dire," Dr McNeil said.

Business created to fund science

That has led him to develop a business to help privately fund science and research projects.

His company, Thinkable.org, directly connects businesses and individuals keen to invest in research, with scientists looking for funding grants.

"What we wanted to do at Thinkable.org, is to create a completely new way of trying to engage anyone with great science," he said.

"Then they can design the prize and we can source these really amazing young researchers around the world, to essentially pitch, to tell the public directly about what they're doing and engage with them one on one.

"So it's like a peer to peer platform, that empowers anyone around the world, to cultivate great science directly for them."

UPDATE : almost $20,000 has been raised already, less than a month after crowdfunding started

[RADIOACTIVE MAN]

About fucing time

i always knew there was more to this finding, i wonder what exactly he is trying to decode though, coordinates? encoded messaging?

good shit regardless

[soul controller]

lol is this another crowdfunding space scam.