![]() ![]() When the second detector covered the same patch of sky three minutes later, it heard nothing. But was it sent by an advanced civilization?Ĭuriously, the signal was picked up by only one of the scope’s two detectors. He did some analysis of the data, and by all indications this powerful, narrowband radio signal was from outside of our solar system. ![]() Seventy-two seconds also happened to be the exact length of time it would take for the Earth to rotate the Big Ear through a signal from space. The volunteer who found and circled the data in the paper printout was Jerry Ehman, who was amazed at the signal’s intensity and what a narrow range of frequencies it appeared in. The signal came from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, and lasted seventy-two seconds at about 1420.456 MHz before it faded away. It was powerful enough to push the Big Ear’s monitoring device off the charts. The radio telescope was observing space as part of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program, and it was the most compelling signal the receiver had recorded in its fourteen years of operation. The volunteer who spotted the pattern on the paper logs circled the data and wrote “Wow!” in the margin. On August 15th, 1977, such a signal was received at the Big Ear radio observatory in Ohio, though the ensuing drama was considerably more subdued. At some point someone yells, “Get me the President!” at the person whose job it is to get presidents. ![]() “We’re getting a signal!” he shouts into a phone as needles dance across paper chart recorders, and scientists rapidly converge on the scene. It’s no rare occurrence in science fiction: The introverted researcher working the graveyard shift at a SETI radio observatory jumps out of his seat in surprise when the red light blinks on the control panel. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s). ![]()
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