The Claim
Aliens sent us a radio signal from the Sagittarius constellation 5000 light years away, and no one knows what it says.
What has now become known as the Wow signal was a strong narrow-band radio signal that was sent from somewhere in the Sagittarius constellation about 5000 light years away, and was picked up by the Ohio state University’s Big ear radio telescope.
The signal wasn’t discovered until a few days after it was received when astronomer Jerry R. Ehman found the it when reviewing some of that days data. He wrote the word “wow” on the piece of paper the signal was printed on, which stuck and became the official name of the transmission.
This happened on August 15, 1977 and since then the signal hasn’t been detected again, despite many attempts by numerous people. It lasted for a total of 72 seconds but doesn’t appear to include any kind of actual message, but more a continuous wave of radio energy that maintains a stable frequency and amplitude, kind of like when a radio is broadcasting but no one is talking through it.
So far the signal holds the most weight in the argument for a genuine alien transmission, but of course there are those out there who arnt so sure. Various explanation exist on the source of the signal, but non of them have been widely accepted.
The main arguments for it not being an alien signal include man-made equipment causing interference on the telescope, or a signal being sent into space somehow bouncing off space debris and beaming back to earth, giving the impression that it came out of deep space.
Non of the explanations have been believed by many, as the person who discovered the signal claims he has personally tried to find it again more than 50 times, and also accounted for man-made equipment causing interference that could imitate such a signal. But he along with countless others trying to find it haven’t been able to pick up the smallest trace of it again, something that would have happened if it were some kind of human sent transmission from elsewhere.
The Radio telescope that detected it was capable of cancelling out man-made interference and was focused on the Sagittarius constellation, which strongly suggests the signal came from there.
Since it hasn’t been found again it looks like we’ll never know what the senders intentions were and what they were up to, and it will be many lifetimes before someone develops the technology to travel 5000 light years, and that’s if we even get that advanced in the first place.
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