200 most important Astronomy topics - Sykalo Eugen 2023

The Wow! Signal

In 1977, an astronomer named Jerry Ehman was working at Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope when he noticed something strange. As he was analyzing data from the telescope, he saw a series of letters and numbers that stood out from the background noise. These characters were "6EQUJ5", and they corresponded to a signal that had been detected by the telescope just a few days earlier. Ehman circled the signal on the printout and wrote "Wow!" next to it, giving it the name that it is now known by: the Wow! Signal.

The Wow! Signal was a radio signal that was detected by the Big Ear radio telescope on August 15, 1977. The signal lasted for 72 seconds and came from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation. What made the signal so intriguing was its unusual characteristics. It was a narrowband signal, meaning that it was concentrated at a very specific frequency. This is not typical of natural sources of radio waves, which tend to produce a wider range of frequencies.

The signal also had a very high signal-to-noise ratio, which means that it was much stronger than the background noise. This suggested that it was a deliberate transmission rather than just random noise. In addition, the signal appeared to be drifting in frequency, which is consistent with the movement of a source in space.

Despite its intriguing characteristics, the Wow! Signal has never been detected again. Scientists have been unable to explain what caused it, and it remains one of the most tantalizing mysteries in the history of astronomy.

One possibility is that the signal was a message from an extraterrestrial civilization. This idea has captured the public imagination, and the Wow! Signal has been the subject of countless articles, books, and TV shows. However, most scientists are skeptical of this explanation. While it is possible that the signal was artificial in nature, there are many natural phenomena that could also explain it.

For example, the signal could have been produced by a previously unknown astrophysical phenomenon, such as a flare from a distant star or a burst of radiation from a black hole. It is also possible that the signal was caused by a human-made source, such as a satellite or a military radar. However, none of these explanations can fully account for the signal's unique characteristics.

Despite the mystery surrounding the Wow! Signal, it has had a lasting impact on the field of astronomy. It has led to renewed interest in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and has inspired scientists to search for similar signals from other parts of the universe. In the decades since the Wow! Signal was detected, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets, and have developed new techniques for detecting signs of life on other worlds.