The "Wow" Signal

The Signal

In 1977, Jerry Ehman a volunteer for SETI (The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) may have been the first person to receive an intentional message from an alien world.  He was scanning radio waves from deep space to hopefully receive a signal that might have been sent from intelligent aliens. He was shocked when he saw his measurements spike.  The signal lasted for 72 seconds, “the longest period of time it could possibly be measured by the array that Ehman was using.”  Ehman said, “It was loud and appeared to have been transmitted from a place no human has gone before.”  The signal came from a star called Tau Sagittarii, 120 light-years away.

The signal is called the “Wow Signal” because Ehman wrote Wow on the printout of the signal when it arrived since he was so surprised at what he had just saw.  He made more attempts to locate the signal again but they all failed.  This led to much controversy and mystery about its origins and its meaning. 

I do think the radio signal was sent from extraterrestrial life.  The Hubble Telescope  took a picture of whats called "deep space" the picture shows hundreds of huge galaxies which astronomers thought would be nothing, showing how many galaxies are really out there.  The "deep space" picture is about the size of a grain of rice pointed in a random position of the universe.