“Wow!” signal entered the stage of history on August 15, 1977. This signal was recorded as a radio signal reflected from the sky within the framework of the SETI project at the time. In the blink of an eye, this 72-second signal was captured in the huge Big Ear radio telescope of Ohio State University by Dr. Spotted by Jerry R. Ehman.
The moment shone like a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence, and the signal had exactly the characteristics expected. The media immediately showed interest in this extraordinary discovery; But unfortunately, despite all the research, this mysterious signal was never caught again.
Amazed that the signal blinked as if it had originated from interstellar communication, Dr. Ehman almost circled the mark on the computer screen and said, “Wow!” dropped the word. This one word remained the name of this mysterious signal afterwards.
wow! Technical Specifications of the Signal
This mysterious signal was a radio wave from the sky as part of the SETI project and left many question marks behind. Intensity changes over this 72-second period were circled with the code “6EQUJ5.” This code represented differences in the intensity of the signal. The gaps represented densities between 0 and 0.999, while the numbers reflected densities between 1,000 and 9,999.
The letters represented greater densities; Like A=10,000-10,999, B=11,000-11,999. Most notable was the “U” value, as it represented the highest density detected with the telescope (between 30,000 and 30,999). This intensity indicated the signal to noise ratio and was the average of the amount detected over several minutes in a given band.
The bandwidth of the signal was quite low, that is, below 10 kHz. Each column in the output corresponded to a 10 kHz wide channel, and the signal appeared in only one column. Frequencies of 1420.356 MHz (JD Kraus) and 1420.456 MHz (JR Ehman) stood out. Interestingly, both values were pretty close to the hydrogen line, 1420.405 MHz. Two matching certainties are suggested:
Right span = 19s22d22s ± 5s
Right span = 19s25d12s ± 5s
Perpendicular span (for both precisions) = -27°03´ ± 20´ (per date B1950.0)
This interesting spot is located in the constellation Sagittarius and is located about 2.5 degrees south of the 5th magnitude star Chi-1 Sagittarii.
The Big Ear telescope stood still and was able to scan the sky using the earth’s rotation. Given the speed of Earth’s rotation and the size of the telescope’s observation window, the telescope was able to study a specific point in the sky over a 72-second period. Therefore, an extraterrestrial signal was expected to last 72 seconds, and the signal should have strengthened in the first 36 seconds and then weakened – these times, the famous Wow! It completely matched the duration of his signal.
In conclusion, Wow! The length and duration of its signal certainly pointed to an extraterrestrial source. This mysterious event still remains an unsolved puzzle in the scientific world.
wow! Efforts to Find His Signal Again
The Big Ear telescope worked by scanning the sky with two antennas. This pattern meant that a persistent signal had to be recaptured 3 minutes after being detected for the first time. However, despite all these expectations, Wow! Its signal was detected only once. Dr. Ehman worked hard to recapture the signal a month later; However, these efforts were unsuccessful.
In subsequent years, in 1987 and 1989, Robert Gray worked at the Oak Ridge Observatory to search for this mysterious signal. However, despite these efforts, it could not find the signal. Gray continued his research in 1995 and 1996 using the Very Large Array, which is much more powerful than Big Ear, but still failed.
In 1999, Gray started his research once again using the 26-meter radio telescope of the University of Tasmania. A total of six 14-hour observations were made in the relevant region of the sky; however, a signal similar to the Wow signal could not be detected.
wow! Source of Signal
Moving on to a more interesting perspective, Wow! It has been suggested that its signal is an amplified version of a weaker signal due to the effect of interstellar flickers. This approach can be thought of as the vibrations of the light of the stars. However, this argument does not definitively rule out the possibility that the signal came from an artificial source. However, even an extremely powerful telescope system such as the Very Large Array cannot detect this signal, so it is unlikely that interstellar pulsation can generate a signal that Big Ear can detect.
Another view is that the signal may have originated from some kind of interstellar rotating fen or its frequency may have changed continuously.
Dr. Ehman was initially skeptical of the idea that the signal was coming from an extraterrestrial source: “Even though we looked so often, we should have seen it again. It seems to me that this signal was the outer reflection of an earth-origin signal, which was reflected back by a piece of debris in space.”
However, later Dr. Ehman changed his skeptical approach. Research shows that a signal originating from Earth is unlikely to be reflected back into space. For the 72-second period to be explained, the object that would serve as a reflector in space would have to have unrealistic properties. In addition, the 1420 MHz frequency is the forbidden zone for radio transmitters around the world. Dr. In his later writings, Ehman stated that “it is necessary to achieve big results with little data”.
Another theory put forward years later on this subject is that when the “wow” signal is played faster than the original speed of the recording and the wave-sized noises are minimized, the recording belongs to a police radio announcement and contains a human voice.
Some Scientists Claim to Have Discovered the Origin of the Mysterious Signal
Scientists working at St Petersburg College in Florida claimed to have discovered the origin of this mysterious signal. Scientists working at St Petersburg College, Dr. He had been searching for a long time to find the source of this signal, which Jerry R. Ehman discovered and lasted only 72 seconds. Finally, this team shared results that disprove the claim that the source of the signal belongs to an alien civilization, which is the subject of many conspiracy theories.
Professor Antonio Paris, on behalf of the team, stated that they examined two asteroids that passed close to the earth the day before this discovery, and that the signals came from these objects. These two meteorites, named 266P/Christensen and P/2008 Y2, revolve around the Sun and pass close to Earth approximately every 7 years. Interestingly, as these two asteroids again passed close to our planet this year, a similar signal was recorded by the team as the Wow signal.
Professor Paris said, “I would love to be wrong,” adding that he still does not rule out the possibility that this signal may belong to an extraterrestrial civilization. The issue of aliens and humans not meeting is a subject that has been in the lens of the scientific world for a long time. Scientists examining this scenario state that there are 40 billion Earth-like planets in the universe. However, they state that it may take longer than expected for an advanced civilization to contact us.
