![]() ![]() Next we'll hear what the skeptics say, and what we've discovered in the 35 years since we first heard the "Wow!" To many SETI scientists, this is a clear sign of an intentional radio transmission from a distant world, not an accidental cosmic event. The Big Ear telescope was listening on 50 different channels, not just 1420 MHz, and none of those other radio channels registered a blip. When a radio telescope receives electromagnetic waves from a natural cosmic source, like a quasar, the radio waves are diffused over a band of frequencies. As the telescope drifts out of range of the signal, it decreases again, hence the pyramid shapeĪnother tantalizing characteristic of the "Wow!" signal was the sharpness of the transmission.When the telescope points straight at the source, the signal will be the loudest.If the origin of a radio signal is a fixed point in deep space, the signal will appear weak as it first enters the telescope's range.As Earth rotates, the telescope's focal range slowly drifts across the sky.A radio telescope is located on Earth's surface.Next we'll find out why the "Wow!" signal makes such a great case for being a message from ET. 15, when the Big Ear picked up a startling signal that would echo through the decades. They were listening to a sliver of the sky near the constellation Sagittarius and measuring the strength of the signal picked up on the 1420 MHz channel.Įhman and others had been at it for years, always receiving the same 1s and 2s of normal background radiation, until Aug. Īnd that's exactly what Jerry Ehman and other SETI volunteers were doing with the Big Ear telescope at Ohio State back in the summer of 1977. After listening for a few minutes, the telescope moves on to the next tiny patch of sky, and so on and so on. Using large radio telescopes, astronomers focus on one tiny patch of sky and listen for the faintest sign of an unusual transmission coming over the 1420 MHz frequency. If an alien was trying to communicate with us over an open channel, it would choose 1420 megahertz, also known as the "hydrogen line."Īnd so began the search for alien life. The most common electromagnetic frequency, Morrison and Cocconi reasoned, is emitted by the most common element in the universe, hydrogen. The two men assumed that an extraterrestrial life-form intelligent enough to master the electromagnetic spectrum would try to craft its message in a "common language" that anyone could understand. The next question for SETI scientists was where to listen? The best guess was promoted by two Cornell physicists in the early 1960s, Philip Morrison and Guiseppi Cocconi. We're here!" is to send a radio transmission. The most efficient way to say, "Hello, universe. ![]() Like us, the alien species probably doesn't have unlimited energy resources to travel around the universe looking for friends. If intelligent life is out there, SETI decided, then it must have an understanding of radio waves and the electromagnetic spectrum. Instead, the SETI sciences decided to stay on Earth, but keep an ear on the heavens. In the decades since that original Wow! moment, no one has been able to replicate the signal or identify its definitive source, cosmic or Earthly. The powerful blast of radio waves lasted just 72 seconds, but many astronomers and amateur Ufologists believe the unique characteristics of the signal point to a celestial origin. More than 35 years later, the so-called "Wow!" signal remains the "closest encounter" mankind has ever had with what may or may not be an alien species. Grabbing a red pen - he was a teacher, after all - Ehman circled the mysterious sequence "6EQUJ5" and excitedly scribbled next to it the single word "Wow!" Instead of the usual 1s and 2s and occasional 4s, there was a stream of both letters and numbers signaling a radio transmission 30 times louder than the background buzz of deep space. 18, 1977, Ehman was scanning readouts from three days earlier when he came across something radically different. Ehman's thankless job was to scan the mind-numbing numbers for anomalies, anything that stood out from the constant low hum of background radiation. Every couple of days, a bike messenger would arrive at Ehman's office with a pile of printouts generated by the telescope's mainframe computer. If (slot) slot.addService(googletag.Jerry Ehman was an Ohio State professor volunteering with the Big Ear SETI experiment that summer in 1977. (function (a, d, o, r, i, c, u, p, w, m) Wow! Signal: Origin of possible alien signal narrowed down - study - The Jerusalem Post ![]()
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