Episode 240: The Wow! Signal

On a quiet night in August 1977, at an empty lab in Ohio, something extraordinary happened. For 72 seconds, a high frequency signal came through on a special radio telescope. When the signal was discovered, it began a decades-long search for its source. Did we get a message from extraterrestrials? This week’s episode is: The Wow! Signal

SOURCES

Wow! Signal Documentary, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-om5BezprIg

 Wow! signal explained after 40 years?, Earth Sky: https://earthsky.org/space/wow-signal-explained-comets-antonio-paris/

The 'Wow!' Signal: One Man's Search for SETI's Most Tantalizing Trace of Alien Life, The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/the-wow-signal-one-mans-search-for-setis-most-tantalizing-trace-of-alien-life/253093/

Earth Replies to a Space Signal After 35 Year Delay, Tech News World: https://web.archive.org/web/20201130201504/https://www.technewsworld.com/story/76694.html

Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow! Signal, Science X Network: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-amateur-astronomer-alberto-caballero-source.html

The 40-Year Old Mystery of the "Wow!" Signal Was Just Solved, Futurism Magazine: https://futurism.com/the-40-year-old-mystery-of-the-wow-signal-was-just-solved

2017 Wow Signal "Discovery" Rebuttal from Big Ear astronomer Bob Dixon: http://naapo.org/WOWCometRebuttal.html

What is the Arecibo Message?, Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/153920/what-is-the-arecibo-message/

It's the 25th anniversary of Earth's first (and only) attempt to phone E.T., Cornell News: https://web.archive.org/web/20080802005337/http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Nov99/Arecibo.message.ws.html

Initiative 1, Breakthrough Listen: https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/1

Telescopes Pick up Strange Radio Signals Three Billion Years Old, The Wire: https://thewire.in/science/fast-radio-bursts-neutron-stars-voyager-breakthrough-listen-drake-seti

Big Ear Memorial Website: http://www.bigear.org/

John Kraus Statement on the dismantling of The Big Ear, Memorial Website: http://www.bigear.org/JDK-Infamy.htm

Humankind just beamed a signal at space aliens. Was that a bad idea?, SETI: https://www.seti.org/humankind-just-beamed-signal-space-aliens-was-bad-idea

Why These Scientists Fear Contact With Space Aliens, NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/the-big-questions/why-these-scientists-fear-contact-space-aliens-n717271

Robert Gray, amateur astronomer who spent years try to decipher the ‘Wow! Signal’, Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/ct-robert-gray-obituary-20220113-t7z66agbsrht5o2haz4qdvt244-story.html

One Man's Quest to Investigate the Mysterious Wow Signal, SuperCluster: https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/one-mans-quest-to-investigate-the-mysterious-wow-signal

Could the "Wow" signal have originated from a stochastic repeating beacon?, Cornell University's Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics: https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.08374

The Wow! Signal After 45 Years, Cool Worlds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6rPNPVQp0Y