I Wow! signal could be from interstellar hydrogen clouds

[mfb]

TL;DR Summary

A new paper proposes cold interstellar hydrogen clouds as source of a bright radio signal seen in 1977.

Normally these clouds are quiet, but they can get excited and start emitting radio waves by some nearby source of radiation. This new paper has found several more signals, dimmer than the Wow! signal but similar in its behavior: Arecibo Wow! I: An Astrophysical Explanation for the Wow! Signal

We report the detection of narrowband signals (10 kHz) near the hydrogen line similar to the Wow! Signal, although two-orders of magnitude less intense and in multiple locations. Despite the similarities, these signals are easily identifiable as due to interstellar clouds of cold hydrogen (HI) in the galaxy. We hypothesize that the Wow! Signal was caused by sudden brightening from stimulated emission of the hydrogen line due to a strong transient radiation source, such as a magnetar flare or a soft gamma repeater (SGR). These are very rare events that depend on special conditions and alignments, where these clouds might become much brighter for seconds to minutes. The original source or the cloud might not be detectable, depending on the sensitivity of the telescope. The precise location of the Wow! Signal might be determined by searching for transient radio sources behind the cold hydrogen clouds in the corresponding region.
Our hypothesis explains all observed properties of the Wow! Signal, proposes a new source of false positives in technosignature searches, and suggests that the Wow! Signal could be the first recorded event of an astronomical maser flare in the hydrogen line.

 

[Baluncore]

A hydrogen maser does seem to be a sensible explanation.

 

[tade]

so the search for evidence of aliens continues lol