A recent story in the Columbus Dispatch, The Day the Aliens Called Jerry Ehman, recounts the story of the unusual space signal that was picked up by the Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio observatory in Delaware on August 7, 1977. Jerry Ehman was monitoring the Big Ear when the signal came through and wrote “Wow!” on the computer print out. To this day no one is really sure what the signal meant, but the possibility that it was intelligent life has never been proven or disproven. The original print out is preserved in the Ohio Historical Society Archives. It is part of the North American Astrophysical Observatory Records, call number MSS 1151.
Original print out of the mysterious WOW! signal.
This collection is available to researchers in the Archives/Library reading room during open hours. What is the meaning of “6EQUJ5″ ? Everyone is welcome to develop their own theory!
Nice work! great blog
Hi OHS,
The sequence 6EQUJ5 is actually the measure of intensity of the signal within the 72 second window that the radio telescope monitored any given portion of the sky. Here is an explanation from a site dedicated to history the radio telescope:
Source: http://www.bigear.org/6equj5.htm
Was this ever reported in the media during that time? If so, when and what publication?
Thanks.
Hello,
OHS holds a large collections of newspapers on microfilm and hard copy from all over Ohio. You are welcome to visit our research room and look for news coverage of the WOW! signal. If you are not able to visit the research room, please contact our reference staff by e-mail at: reference@ohiohistory.org. They do not take requests for newspaper research, but can send you a list of researchers for hire.
Thank you,
Lisa
Lisa Wood
Curator for Visual Resources and History Services Manager
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