In 1977, the alien-hunting astronomer Jerry Ehman spotted a signal from deep space which was so unusual that he scribbled the word "Wow" in the margin of his notebook.
Now an American scientist has uncovered evidence which could finally demolish claims that this mysterious burst of radio waves was produced by an extraterrestrial civilisation.
Antonio Paris, from St Petersburg College in Florida, pored over astronomical records and found that two comets zoomed past on Earth at the very moment the Wow signal was recorded.
He originally published this theory in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences earlier this year, but is now on the verge of finally proving his claims.
Paris, a former investigator at the Department of Defense, is about to successfully complete a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough cash to build a radio telescope and "solve one of the greatest mysteries of the Universe".
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This cash will be used to build a radio telescope just in time to see the comets 266P/Christensen and P/2008 Y2 zoom through the same area of the sky as the star cluster M55 in the constellation Sagittarius, which was thought to be the origin of the Wow signal.
Paris believes that the radio waves were actually produced by clouds of hydrogen which surround the comets, rather than emanating from M55.
However, he admitted that he would be quite sad to finally prove the signal was not produced by an extraterrestrial civilisation.
Paris, a former investigator at the Department of Defense, is about to successfully complete a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough cash to build a radio telescope and "solve one of the greatest mysteries of the Universe".
"I have always been fascinated with astronomy, space and - more importantly - whether there is life in the universe," he told the Sunday Times .
"After 40 years, the Wow signal was a cold case I wanted to reopen.
"Here we have a crime scene with a date and time, and a little description of the subject."Paris has now raised $18,260 of his goal of $20 thousand on the crowdfunding site GoFundMe.
This cash will be used to build a radio telescope just in time to see the comets 266P/Christensen and P/2008 Y2 zoom through the same area of the sky as the star cluster M55 in the constellation Sagittarius, which was thought to be the origin of the Wow signal.
Paris believes that the radio waves were actually produced by clouds of hydrogen which surround the comets, rather than emanating from M55.
However, he admitted that he would be quite sad to finally prove the signal was not produced by an extraterrestrial civilisation.
"There's a little bit of inside of me that hopes its aliens," he added.This would not be the first time that party-pooper comets have ruined ET hunters' day.
Last year, the world was astonished when astronomers spotted evidence of an "alien megastructure" orbiting a distant star .
Astronomers trained NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope on KIC 8462852, also known as Tabby's Star, which has baffled scientists ever since they saw its light dim in "dramatic, never-before-seen ways".
Sadly, this sighting was also blamed on comets, with researchers suggesting a swarm of comets were responsible for the highly unusual sightings around the star.
By Jasper Hamill, MIRROR
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