The most common electromagnetic frequency, Morrison and Cocconi reasoned, is emitted by the most common element in the universe, hydrogen. The two men assumed that an extraterrestrial life-form intelligent enough to master the electromagnetic spectrum would try to craft its message in a "common language" that anyone could understand. The next question for SETI scientists was where to listen? The best guess was promoted by two Cornell physicists in the early 1960s, Philip Morrison and Guiseppi Cocconi. We're here!" is to send a radio transmission.
The most efficient way to say, "Hello, universe. Like us, the alien species probably doesn't have unlimited energy resources to travel around the universe looking for friends. If intelligent life is out there, SETI decided, then it must have an understanding of radio waves and the electromagnetic spectrum. Instead, the SETI sciences decided to stay on Earth, but keep an ear on the heavens. In the decades since that original Wow! moment, no one has been able to replicate the signal or identify its definitive source, cosmic or Earthly. The powerful blast of radio waves lasted just 72 seconds, but many astronomers and amateur Ufologists believe the unique characteristics of the signal point to a celestial origin. More than 35 years later, the so-called "Wow!" signal remains the "closest encounter" mankind has ever had with what may or may not be an alien species. Grabbing a red pen - he was a teacher, after all - Ehman circled the mysterious sequence "6EQUJ5" and excitedly scribbled next to it the single word "Wow!" Instead of the usual 1s and 2s and occasional 4s, there was a stream of both letters and numbers signaling a radio transmission 30 times louder than the background buzz of deep space. 18, 1977, Ehman was scanning readouts from three days earlier when he came across something radically different. Ehman's thankless job was to scan the mind-numbing numbers for anomalies, anything that stood out from the constant low hum of background radiation. Every couple of days, a bike messenger would arrive at Ehman's office with a pile of printouts generated by the telescope's mainframe computer. However, no response has been picked up so far.Ī new plan is now being considered to send another signal into deep space with new information that includes simple principles for communication, basic mathematical concepts, physics formulas, constituents of DNA along with information about humans, the Earth, and a return address if someone wants to revert.Jerry Ehman was an Ohio State professor volunteering with the Big Ear SETI experiment that summer in 1977. The astronomer identified an object in deep space to be the potential source of the wow signal, the sun-like star 2MASS 19281982-2640123, which is too dim to image with current technology, an extragalactic source, or any other origin.Įarth, too, had broadcast a radio message using the powerful Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico containing information about the basic chemicals of life, the structure of DNA, Earth’s place in our solar system, and a stick figure of a human. An extraterrestrial civilization could have opted to behave in a similar manner," Caballero said in the paper. "If we analyse the history of (the few) radio signals that humanity have sent to several targets in the hope of contacting a civilization, none of those transmissions had a long duration or were repeatedly sent for a long time. The search for the source has taken over 45 years as it never repeated and a similar signal was never detected. The research published in the International Journal of Astrobiology states that a total of 66 G and K-type stars were sampled to find out the source of the alien signal, but only one of them is identified as a potential Sun-like star considering the available information.Īstronomer Alberto Caballero, who led the research, has identified 2MASS 19281982-2640123 to be the ideal target to conduct observations in the search for techno-signatures of the signal. Reportedly, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), which has been searching the dark trenches of the universe for intelligent lifeforms, continues to study the signal. Years later, researchers have identified the source of the radio signal that Ehman had dubbed 'WOW" signal to a sun-like star in the constellation Sagittarius nearly 1800 light-years away from Earth. Upon seeing the printout of the unique signal, astronomer Jerry Ehman circled the strange frequency and scribbled 'wow', giving it the mystic name.
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