invaderxan:

mistyscience:

The Wow! signal. 

A signal sequence that lasted for 72 seconds in 1977 but has never been seen again. The signal appeared to come from a globular cluster in the Sagittarius constellation, but to this day no definite answer for where the signal originated can be given.  

This signal…

• After numerous checks and re-checks, it’s been found to have definitely come from an extraterrestrial source.
• It was broadcast at 1420 MHz. This frequency isn’t used by Earth communications for science reasons. It’s a frequency which neutral hydrogen emits at in interstellar space and is useful in radio astronomy.
• Interestingly, emitting a strong signal at this frequency is a likely way to get someone’s attention if there’s anyone listening, because any other radio astronomers in the universe will definitely know of it and be making observations of it.
• That really is a very strong signal. Against the backgrounds, it looks to me like about 30 standard deviations (give or take).
• Actually, that globular cluster (M55) is just the closest object to the transmission’s source. It appeared to have come from a region of mostly empty space (though it’s worth remembering that distant red dwarfs or brown dwarfs could be too faint to be detectable).
• The astronomer who found this and scrawled “Wow!” on that printout was Jerry Ehman at the Big Ear radio telescope in Ohio. Credit where it’s due.
• Despite a lot of efforts, this kind of signal has only ever been recorded this one time. There’s a chance we may never know what it was.
• It is unlike any other kind of phenomenon ever observed in astronomy. The only logical scientific explanation is that it was one of two things: Either it was a completely unknown and incredibly rare astronomical phenomenon which modern astronomy is completely unaware of – or it was an intercepted alien transmission. There are no other possibilities.