The Wow! Signal

Ever since the late 1940's, Americans have been infatuated with the little green men from Mars. Scifi movies have become an art form in American cinema as a result. So in 1977 a movie called 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. In that same year, a real event occurred that would seem to have come straight from the movie. On August 15, 1977, a SETI project in Ohio received a signal that seemingly came from the stars. Was it extraterrestrial life?

The signal received in 1977 was not science fiction but an actual event. It has become known as the 'Wow! Signal' because on the paper printout of the signal, the man who detected it (Jerry Ehman) wrote 'Wow!' next to the signal. The reason for his excitement? The signal matched closely the signal of an radio transmission. The implications of this are obvious: if it didn't come from earth, where did it come from?

Original printout of the Wow! Signal

No one really knows where the signal originated from. If you look in the night sky at the constellation Sagittarius, that is where the signal is believed to have originated, although there is speculation as the exact location.

Shortly after, Ehman tried to find the signal again for the next while, but he couldn't find it. Attempts by others were made in 1987, 1989, 1995, 1996, and 1999 to find the signal, but each attempt was met with nothing. In 2012, on the 35th anniversary, scientists beamed a response of 10,000 Twitter messages in the direction of the signal as well as header messages which show that the messages are intentional and from an intelligent life form.

Although there is much speculation to this day as to whether the signal was natural or created by another life form or even if it was something from ourselves, the Wow! Signal has peaked the imagination and curiosity of scientists and astronomers all over the world. Until the mystery is solved, they will continue to search and listen.