If December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001, are dates that will live in infamy, then August 15, 1977, is a date that should live as a more positive time, at least among science fiction fans. This is because that was the day that the Big Ear radio observatory at Ohio State University picked up what has become known as the "WOW!" signal. Of all the signals picked up by radio telescopes, this is the one that was most likely to have been broadcast by extraterrestrial alien intelligence.
The "WOW!" signal derived its name from the notation written by graduate student Jerry Ehman who came across the signal on the computer printouts of the Big Ear's scanning of the heavens on August 15, 1977. The signal lasted 72 seconds which was the maximum amount of time that it could be scanned by the radio telescope. The frequency of this signal almost precisely matched the frequency wavelength given off by hydrogen radiation. Since this radiation is so prevalent in space, the consensus among radio astronomers is that aliens may very well use it for radio transmissions.The printouts showed that the signal in question was 30 times stronger than the background noise and was tightly focused just like commercial broadcasts are. It neatly fit almost every criteria set by radio astronomers for what a broadcast sent by extraterrestrial intelligence aka aliens would be like. That being the case, Ehman was so startled by the printout, he wrote "WOW!" on it. Hence the name of the "WOW!" signal.
Of all the signals picked up by radio astronomers, the "WOW!" signal is the only one that has withstood all challenges. You would think that the astronomers at Ohio State University would have held a press conference to announce their discovery. Instead, they opted to publish their findings in 1979 in Cosmic Search, a magazine with such a low circulation, that today there are very few complete sets in existence. Very little has been written about the "WOW!" signal so much so that this writer first learned about it from the March 2015 issue of Astronomy where it ranked 361st out of the 500 Coolest Things About Space.
One might wonder why so little has been made about this discovery. For one thing, the only criteria for determining a signal is from cosmic intelligence that the "WOW!" signal does not meet is that it has never been observed again. This is interesting given how that when we humans on rare occasions deliberately send signals to outer space, we ourselves rarely send the same signal on multiple times to the same area of space. If beings of alien intelligence were to use the same criteria that we humans do, then they would have no reason to believe that there is any intelligent life on Earth.
Another reason why the lack of coverage of the "WOW!" signal in scientific publications is the fact that when you trace out the "WOW!" signal , there are no known stars or planets in the vicinity, This is interesting because science fiction writers as well as leading scientists have long proposed that mankind construct space stations and perhaps space cities. These stations/cities could be placed in interstellar space far away from any planet or even any solar system. If we humans can talk about such ideas, then why could an alien intelligence not have the same ideas? Surely, aliens with technology far more advanced than our own could take a staple of today's science fiction and trun it into reality. Additionally, just because a radio telescope here on Earth picked up a signal does not necessarily mean that signal was deliberately sent to Earth in the first place. The "WOW!" signal could have been a SOS signal from and alien ship or it could have been originally sent by one alien ship to another and reached planet Earth long after the original broadcast was sent.
There are about 80 radio telescopes surveying the heavens located throughout the world. While there are other uses for radio telescopes, their primary mission is to search for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Of necessity, their searches are limited to certain frequencies that are protected by international agreements. These are frequencies that are reserved for astronomers.
The fact that only certain frequencies are available to radio astronomers is a hindrance to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. If an alien civilization attempted to contact us via AM or FM radio, the end result would simply be an increase in static. There would be no way to determine that the static originated in outer space and that's assuming that there would even be an attempt to discover where that static came from in the first place. Apparently, nobody in official positions have realized that if we humans find certain frequencies such as AM/FM to be conducive to communication, then surely other sentient life forms wold find them useful as well. What is needed is to have satellites in orbit that would pick up transmissions from outer space of frequencies that are in commercial use here on Earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment