The event was later documented in detail by the observatory's director.
#1977 72 second radio signal from space series#
While looking at the data collected on August 15 at 22:16 EDT (02:16 UTC), he noticed a series of values showing signal strength and frequency that left him and others amazed. In 1977, Ehman was working at the SETI project as a volunteer his job involved going through large amounts of data processed by a computer and recorded on paper. The radio telescope was located near the Perkins Observatory on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. In 1973, after completing a survey of radio sources coming from other galaxies, Ohio State University assigned the Ohio State University Radio Observatory (nicknamed "Big Ear") to the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), in the longest-running program of this kind in history.
In a 1959 paper, Cornell University physicists Philip Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi hypothesized that any extraterrestrial civilization trying to communicate with radio signals might do so using a frequency of 1420 megahertz ( 21 centimeters), because is naturally emitted by hydrogen, which is the most common element in the universe, and is likely familiar to all technologically advanced civilizations. Īlthough the Wow! signal did not have any known encoded message, it remains the strongest candidate for an alien radio transmission ever detected. Many explanations have been given on where the signal comes from, including natural and human-made sources, but none of them have been accepted by scientists as good enough to fully explain the signal.
#1977 72 second radio signal from space full#
The entire signal was detected for the full 72-second window during which Big Ear was able to observe it, but has not been detected since, even though many, such as Ehman, have tried. He was so impressed by the strength of the signal that he circled the text that represented it, "6EQUJ5", and wrote the comment "Wow!" on its side, leading to the event's widely used name. Ehman found the signal a few days after it was received while reviewing printout of the data collected by the telescope. The signal appeared to come from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius and met all the expectations of a signal of extraterrestrial origin.Īstronomer Jerry R. The Wow! signal was a strong radio signal received on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States, which was being used at the time in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The original printout with Ehman's handwritten exclamation is kept by Ohio History Connection.
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