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CASE #2YKRVQ · 2 entities · 1 connections
The Wow! Signal
In 1977, a radio telescope caught a signal so strange an astronomer circled it and wrote "Wow!" in the margin — it's never repeated since.
On August 15, 1977, Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope detected an unusually strong, narrowband radio signal from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. Astronomer Jerry Ehman circled the reading on the printout and wrote "Wow!" beside it. Despite decades of follow-up listening at the same coordinates, the signal has never been detected again.
⇄disputed
Quick facts
- →The signal's alphanumeric intensity code, "6EQUJ5," is what Ehman famously circled.
- →The signal's narrowband profile matched almost exactly what scientists expected a genuine artificial transmission to look like.
- →Decades of follow-up observations at the same coordinates have never detected it again.
- →A proposed comet explanation from 2016-2017 has been challenged by other astronomers as inconsistent with the telescope's actual field of view.
Entities on file
The Wow! Signal (document)
1977 radio telescope printout recording an unexplained, unusually strong signal.
No outgoing connections on file.
🧑
Jerry Ehman (person)
Astronomer who discovered and annotated the signal on the original printout.
→ discovered and annotated → The Wow! Signal✓documented