In 1977, the radio astronomer Gerry Eyman viewed the observations from the radio telescope Big Ear. He was looking for evidence that extraterrestrial civilizations are trying to broadcast information using radio waves rather than space rockets. He wanted to prove that we can communicate with aliens on the radio link of hydrogen. During the search, any noticeable noise was recorded in a sequence of monotonous data. But the radio frequencies of the Universe did not hurry to please the seekers with an answer.
Ayman circled several symbols – 6-E-Q-U-J-5- separating them from the remaining units and twos in the data stream. What does this code mean? Is this a mysterious message of unearthly civilizations? Why does it start with a six and end with a five? What are they trying to tell us?
From the moment Ayman wrote with the red “Wow!” Pen, this signal was called a “wow-signal”, which was the reason for speculation from the SETI project researchers and aliens, and also caused confusion with the game of World of Warcraft.
It is important to understand that the Radio Observatory Big Ear did not receive these symbols directly in the message. The observatory received radio signals coming from the constellation Sagittarius near the globular star cluster M-55. Each symbol of this diagram corresponds to approximately ten seconds of listening. When the telescope was catching the signal, it recorded the intensity with one character, using the numbers 1 to 9 and the letters A through Z. The highest intensity is indicated by the letter “U” in the middle.
That is, looking at this diagram, you see that at first there is practically no radio signal, then, as the antenna of the Big Ear approaches the signal source, it becomes more intense and intense, and then fades again.
Astronomers tried to trace the signal, but it disappeared. He was caught only once, and he did not appear again in this or any other field. Were they aliens? – Dr. Eyman and other astronomers have explored this area more than fifty times in search of a signal. To no avail. They again used the Great Ear in the Oak Ridge Observatory, and then the more powerful Ultra-Large Antenna Lattice.
Ayman himself doubted that he had caught the signal from extraterrestrial intelligence; He was not even sure that the signal came from outside the solar system. He suspected that it could be a secret military satellite or radio signal of terrestrial origin that was reflected from space debris. But this hypothesis does not explain everything. If it was a satellite, the signal would be recorded in other places and at different times as it moved around the Earth. But no one else noticed him.
It is logical to assume that extraterrestrial intelligence could communicate in this range. So, probably, those who want to send into the cosmos all clear message would act. But the signal is a point source, which means that it must first be brought to a certain star or planet in the Milky Way.
Perhaps we will never know the truth. We just do not have enough data to reveal this secret to the end. But I advocate the search for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. Such unsolved mysteries indicate that we should not stop. It does not matter if we find new alien friends or new uncharted sources of radio emissions, it’s worth it.
By the way, except for jokes, in 2012, researchers from the Arecibo Observatory sent a message from the Earth, which contained messages, tweets and photographs. The signal was sent in the same direction as the “Wow!” Signal came from. I hope that aliens will like this, they will feel sad and they will open their space to the world’s most innocuous planet.
Unfortunately, the “wow-signal” is not sufficient evidence that aliens are trying to contact us. Most likely, we just pollute the space with fragmentary radio signals.
