Courtesy of Jerry Ehman / BigEar.org |The code "6EQUJ5"
indicates a radio signal detected in 1977 at the Big Ear Radio
Observatory in Ohio - a signal so strong that astronomer Jerry
Ehman wrote "Wow!" Exactly 30 years ago today, astronomer Jerry
Ehman was looking over a printout of radio data from Ohio State
University's Big Ear Radio Observatory when he saw a string of
code so remarkable that he had to circle it and scribble "Wow!"
in the margin. The printout recorded an anomalous signal so
strong that it had to come from an extraordinary source. Was it
a burst of human-made interference? Or an alien broadcast from
the stars? No one knows. The source of the "Wow" signal has
never been heard from again - even though astronomers have
looked for it dozens of times. Now the SETI Institute is gearing
up to look for it one more time, using the latest tool for
seeking signals from extraterrestrial civilizations: the Allen
Telescope Array in California. The array combines observations
from dozens of separate 20-foot