The Wow! signal: a 72-second mystery that still haunts SETI

The Wow signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected on August 15, 1977

The Wow! signal: a 72-second mystery that still haunts SETI

On August 15, 1977, Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope detected a strong narrowband signal from the constellation Sagittarius. The 72-second burst, later dubbed the Wow! signal, bore the hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin but has never been detected again. Despite numerous hypotheses—from space debris to interstellar scintillation—its source remains unexplained. Recent searches, including a 2022 effort by Breakthrough Listen, have found no trace, leaving the signal one of astronomy's greatest enigmas.

We should have seen it again when we looked for it 50 times. Something suggests it was an Earth-sourced signal that simply got reflected off a piece of space debris.
  1. wewewedxfgdf

    I simply do not believe that the WOW signal mean anything at all.

    I'm reminded of the exciting signal at Parkes Observatory that turned out to be the microwave oven making an astronomers lunch.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peryton_(astronomy)

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-05/scientists-discover-s...

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/05/microwave-ov...

    If all the modern sophisticated alien signal has detected zero then we really have to stop obsessing about the wow signal from 1977.

  2. fourthark

    > Response

    > In 2012, on the 35th anniversary of the Wow! signal, the Arecibo Observatory was said to have beamed a digital stream towards Hipparcos 34511, 33277, and 43587.[45] The transmission consisted of approximately 10,000 Twitter messages solicited for the purpose by the National Geographic Channel, bearing the hashtag "#ChasingUFOs" (a promotion for one of the channel's TV series).[46] The sponsor also included a series of video vignettes featuring verbal messages from various celebrities.

    What an inane, embarrassing "response", if the original was any attempt to communicate. (Sounds like it probably was not, but still...)

  3. charliebwrites

    OP must be a Muse fan:

    https://open.spotify.com/album/6TObgE5QDLYzA3Exu5vGhS

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