The Wow! signal
For seventy-two seconds in August 1977 a fixed dish in Ohio recorded a narrowband signal, and an astronomer circled six characters on the printout in red ink.
-
The Wow! Signal, Six Characters and a Note in Red Ink
The Wow! signal is a 72-second radio burst recorded by Ohio State University's Big Ear telescope on 15 August 1977 and found days later on a computer printout by Jerry Ehman, who wrote "Wow!" beside it. It showed every mark the search looked for in a beacon, and never came back. Here are the printout, the searches, the explanations offered since, and what is still open.