Archival Test for Candidate Recurrence of the Wow!
Signal Using Newly Available Parkes/Breakthrough
Listen Data

Kevin L. Brown
July 2026

This paper presents a specific, falsifiable archival-search hypothesis for a possible recurrence of the 1977 Wow! signal, using newly available Parkes/Breakthrough Listen observations near one of the revised Wow! candidate fields. It does not claim that a recurrence has been detected, that the original signal has been identified, or that an extraterrestrial or astrophysical source has been established. Its contribution is the dated specification of where, when, at what frequency, and within which stages of the data-processing chain a candidate should be sought.

The Wow! signal remains unresolved because of its unusual combination of strength, narrow bandwidth, short duration, proximity to the neutral hydrogen-line region, and lack of confirmed recurrence. Recent archival work has refined the two possible sky locations associated with the original Big Ear detection and produced a revised frequency estimate near 1420.726 MHz. This paper adopts those published constraints and combines them with a predefined timing hypothesis to create a targeted archival test.

The proposed primary search interval is November 7, 2025 at 01:00 UTC through November 9, 2025 at 02:30 UTC, with highest-priority subwindows from 01:00–02:30 UTC on November 7, 8, and 9. The frequency priority is 1420.726 ± 0.005 MHz, with secondary examination across approximately 1420.70–1420.75 MHz and nearby neutral-hydrogen channels where potentially relevant events may have been filtered or downranked. The timing window was identified during an AI-assisted analysis on April 20, 2026 and was documented before confirmation that relevant Parkes observations existed. It is therefore treated as a predefined search hypothesis rather than as the output of a conventional astronomical ephemeris calculation.

Subsequent correspondence with the Australia Telescope National Facility confirmed that Breakthrough Listen observed near one revised Wow! field with the Parkes 64 m telescope, Murriyang, on November 7, 2025, with coverage including the hydrogen-line region near 1420 MHz. The observations occurred between 08:17 and 08:46 UTC, later than the narrow highest-priority subwindow, but on the principal predicted date and within relevant sky and frequency coverage. The data have been publicly released.

A central feature of the proposed test is that analysis should extend beyond final published candidate lists. The paper recommends examination of intermediate narrowband-hit products, RFI-flagged events, downranked candidates, masked channels, rejected drift-rate candidates, and other signals removed before final candidate publication. This approach tests whether a narrowly defined external hypothesis changes the evidentiary significance of an event previously classified as uninteresting or terrestrial interference.

The hypothesis is explicitly falsifiable. Adequate coverage yielding no comparable narrowband candidate would weaken the proposed recurrence window, while any recovered event must survive independent RFI rejection, beam-response analysis, frequency and timing verification, Doppler analysis, transmitter and satellite checks, and independent replication. A positive result would therefore constitute a candidate requiring technical validation—not a solution to the Wow! signal.

The paper establishes a priority record and converts a speculative recurrence idea into a concrete archival analysis task using publicly available observational data.