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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wow! signal | 1/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:18:23.464156+00:00 | kb-cron |
The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States, then used to support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The signal appeared to come from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius and bore expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin. Astronomer Jerry R. Ehman discovered the anomaly a few days later while reviewing the recorded data. On the computer printout, he circled the reading of the signal's intensity, "6EQUJ5", and wrote the comment "Wow!" beside it, leading to the event's widely used name. The entire signal sequence lasted for the full 72-second window during which Big Ear was able to observe it. Despite numerous follow-up searches and hypotheses (including brief consideration of reflections from space debris, interstellar scintillation, and comet hydrogen clouds), the signal has never recurred, and no explanation, terrestrial or otherwise, has been confirmed. While some researchers have suggested it could represent an extraterrestrial transmission, its single occurrence and lack of replication limit the strength of this interpretation. The Wow! signal has inspired targeted searches, scientific discussion about rare astrophysical phenomena, and references in popular culture.
== Background == In a 1959 paper, Cornell University physicists Philip Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi had speculated that any extraterrestrial civilization attempting to communicate via radio signals might do so using a frequency of 1420 megahertz (21-centimeter spectral line), which is naturally emitted by hydrogen, the most common element in the universe and therefore likely familiar to all technologically advanced civilizations. In 1973, after completing an extensive survey of extragalactic radio sources, Ohio State University assigned the now-defunct Ohio State University Radio Observatory (nicknamed "Big Ear") to the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), in the longest-running program of this kind in history. The radio telescope was located near the Perkins Observatory on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. By 1977, Ehman was working at the SETI project as a volunteer; his job involved analyzing by hand large amounts of data processed by an IBM 1130 computer and recorded on line printer paper. While perusing data collected on August 15 at 22:16 EST (23:16 EDT local time, 03:16 UTC), he spotted a series of values of signal intensity and frequency that left him and his colleagues astonished. The event was later documented in technical detail by the observatory's director.
== Signal measurement ==
The string 6EQUJ5, commonly misinterpreted as a message encoded in the radio signal, represents in fact the signal's intensity variation over time, expressed in the particular measuring system adopted for the experiment. The signal itself appeared to be an unmodulated continuous wave, although any modulation with a period of less than 10 seconds or longer than 72 seconds would not have been detectable.
=== Intensity === The signal intensity was measured as signal-to-noise ratio, with the noise (or baseline) averaged over the previous few minutes. The signal was sampled for 10 seconds and then processed by the computer, which took 2 seconds. The result for each frequency channel was printed as a single alphanumeric character, representing the 10-second average intensity minus the baseline, expressed as a dimensionless multiple of the signal's standard deviation. In this particular intensity scale, a space character denotes an intensity between 0 and 1, that is, between baseline and one standard deviation above it. The numbers 1 to 9 denoted the correspondingly numbered intensities (from 1 to 9); intensities of 10 and above were indicated by a letter: "A" corresponded to intensities between 10 and 11, "B" to 11 to 12, and so on. The Wow! signal's highest measured value was "U" (an intensity between 30 and 31), which is thirty standard deviations above background noise.
=== Frequency === John Kraus, the director of the observatory, gave a value of 1420.3556 MHz in a 1994 summary written for Carl Sagan. However, Ehman in 1998 gave a value of 1420.4556±0.005 MHz. This is (50±5 kHz) above the hydrogen line value (with no red- or blue-shift) of 1420.4058 MHz. If due to blue-shift, it would correspond to the source moving about 10 km/s (6.2 mi/s) towards Earth.
An explanation of the difference between Ehman's value and Kraus's can be found in Ehman's paper. The first local oscillator in the telescope's radio receiver was specified to a frequency value of 1450.4056 MHz. However, the university's purchasing department made a typographical error in the order form, instead obtaining an oscillator with frequency 1450.5056 MHz (i.e., 0.1 MHz higher than desired). The software used in the experiment was then written to adjust for this error. When Ehman computed the frequency of the Wow! signal, he took this error into account.
=== Bandwidth === The Wow! signal had a bandwidth of less than 10 kHz. It is considered narrowband emission in the sense that its fractional bandwidth was relatively small (~0.001%). However, the 10 kHz bandwidth is not small compared to the bandwidth of some astrophysical masers (~1 kHz) or to the frequency resolution of modern narrowband SETI searches (~1 Hz). The Big Ear telescope was equipped with a receiver capable of measuring fifty 10 kHz-wide channels. The output from each channel was represented in the computer printout as a column of alphanumeric intensity values. The Wow! signal is essentially confined to one column.