The Wow Signal
Wow Signal
To this day we aren’t sure what was detected by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977. It’s been called the Wow! signal because he wrote Wow! down on a piece of paper with the signal on it. Could this have been a signal from outer space? The unknown signal fit the parameters of what an artificial space signal might sound. And to this day we still aren’t sure.
The Wow! source radio emission entered the receiver of the Big Ear radio telescope at about 11:16 p.m. Eastern Daylight Savings Time on August 15, 1977. Since that time it has been speculated that this was indeed a radio signal from deep space. Yes, wow! Dr. Ehman was astonished to see the string of numbers and characters “6EQUJ5″ in channel 2 of the printout. He recognized this as the pattern we would expect to see from a narrowband radio source of small angular diameter in the sky. In the red pen he was using, he circled those six characters and wrote the notation “Wow!” in the left margin of the computer printout opposite them. He and others then began an analysis of what has been called for 20 years the “Wow! source”. Analyses have continues to this day.
Here’s a whole lot more information
