WOW! SIGNAL
The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977, while working on a SETI project at the Big Ear radio telescope of The Ohio State University (USA).
The signal bore expected hallmarks of potential non-terrestrial and non-solar system origin.
It lasted for the full 72-second duration that Big Ear observed it, but has not been detected again.
Amazed at how closely the signal matched the expected signature of an interstellar signal in the antenna used, Ehman circled the signal on the computer printout and wrote the comment "Wow!" on its side.
This comment became the name of the signal.
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Interpretation of the paper chart (by column)
The circled alphanumeric code 6EQUJ5 describes the intensity variation of the Wow signal.
The white space space denotes an intensity between 0 and 1
The numbers 1 to 9 denote the correspondingly numbered intensities (from 1.0 to 10.0)
A corresponds to intensities between 10.0 and 11.0
B corresponds to intensities between 11.0 to 12.0
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.....
The value U corresponds to an intensity between 30.0 and 31.0
On a linear scale it was over 30 times louder than normal deep space.
It was the highest detected by the telescope.
Wow signal location
The location of the signal in the constellation Sagittarius, near the Chi Sagittarii star group.
Because of the design of the experiment, the location may lie in either one of the two red bands, and there is also significant uncertainty in the declination (vertical axis).
Note*
For clarity, the widths of the red bands are not drawn to scale; they should actually be narrower
Author: Benjamin Crowell.
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This region of the sky lies in the constellation Sagittarius, roughly 2.5 degrees south of the fifth-magnitude star group Chi Sagittarii.
Tau Sagittarii is the closest easily visible star.
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Plot of Wow signal strength vs time
The Big Ear telescope was fixed and used the rotation of the Earth to scan the sky.
At the speed of the Earth's rotation, and given the width of the Big Ear's observation window, the Big Ear could observe any given point for just 72 seconds.
A continuous extraterrestrial signal, therefore, would be expected to register for exactly 72 seconds, and the recorded intensity of that signal would show a gradual peaking for the first 36 seconds
until the signal reached the center of Big Ear's observation window
and then a gradual decrease.
Therefore, both the length of the Wow! signal, 72 seconds, and the shape of the intensity graph may correspond to a possible extraterrestrial origin.
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The original printout of the Wow! signal (with Jerry Ehman's famous exclamation) is preserved by the Ohio Historical Society.
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