![]() The entire signal sequence lasted for the full 72-second window during which Big Ear was able to observe it, but has not been detected since, despite several subsequent attempts by Ehman and others. He was so impressed by the result that he circled on the computer printout the reading of the signal's intensity, "6EQUJ5", and wrote the comment "Wow!" beside it, leading to the event's widely used name. Ehman discovered the anomaly a few days later while reviewing the recorded data. The signal appeared to come from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius and bore the expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin.Īstronomer Jerry R. The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States, then used to support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The original printout with Ehman's handwritten exclamation is preserved by Ohio History Connection. And perhaps the real lesson is that the 1420 MHz band emitted naturally by hydrogen might not be the best frequency to search for messages from extraterrestrial civilizations, given that there are many natural sources in that window.This article is about the radio signal. Even though the new study makes a strong case for a natural source, this is probably not the last time we’ll hear about the Wow! signal. But the short duration of the detection, 72 seconds, was due to technical limitations of the Big Ear Telescope, and so is consistent with both explanations.įor most of us, an artificial source of the signal, such as the one William Bains suggested in 2015, would be much more exciting. Also, the bandwidth of the 1977 signal was extremely narrow-about 10 kHz-which is difficult to explain with a natural source, but would be more consistent with a strong, narrow-band artificial transmitter. The comet and its signal should have been measurable for days, and perhaps weeks, after the initial detection. What is more difficult to explain-and what Paris does not discuss-is why Ehman and his colleagues could not find the Wow! signal again when they pointed the Big Ear Telescope at least 50 more times in the same direction. Paris, however, thinks that could be because comet 266/P Christensen had much more mass 40 years ago, which it has subsequently lost. His conclusion: The Wow! signal came from a natural source rather than from an extraterrestrial civilization.Īdvocates of an artificial source point to the extraordinary strength of the 1977 signal. But when he moved back to the target, the radio signal could again be detected at the same frequency. When the telescope was moved 1 degree away from the comet, no signal could be observed. He found that various natural sources have a strong signal at 1420 MHz, and that the peak intensity of Comet 266/P Christensen is particularly strong. For the new study, Paris conducted more than 200 observations between November 2016 and February 2017 with a 10-meter radio telescope. They reached that conclusion after extrapolating the comet’s trajectory back to 1977. Paris and co-author Evan Davies suggested in a paper published last year that the comet 266/P Christensen, which was discovered nine years after the Wow! signal, was in the celestial vicinity of the signal at the time it was detected, and might in fact have been the source. Petersburg College in Florida provides further evidence that the signal was most likely caused by a natural source such as a comet. ![]() ![]() In a recent re-analysis of the Wow! signal, Antonio Paris from the Center for Planetary Science at St. Now that interpretation is being called into question. It has remained the best evidence to date for a signal that might have come from an extraterrestrial civilization. ![]() The Wow! signal was a strong, narrow-band radio signal in the frequency range of 1420 MHz discovered in 1977 by radio astronomer Jerry Ehman after reviewing recorded data from Ohio State’s Big Ear Telescope. ![]()
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