42 years ago, an astronomer from the University of Ohio stumbled upon a strange radio signal from space, which resembled a message from aliens. Not surprisingly, he was immediately called “Wow!” (“Hoo-hoo!”). It comes from a 72-second sequence of strange and inexplicably strong radio waves coming from the constellation Sagittarius.
Let's remember the very story of the discovery. Back in the 70s. A group of astronomers led by Jerry Eyman was working on a small SETI project using the Big Ear radio telescope. In those days, SETI’s work was limited only to finding radio signals in the far corners of the universe, which could indicate an attempt by aliens to contact us.
“Hoo!” Signal
In the 1963-1973s. the goal of the “Big Ear” was to create a map of the night sky. In addition, Ayman helped look for radio signals. For many years, the search did not bring any results. But on August 15, 1977, the telescope caught a clear intense radio signal that was 30 times stronger than normal.
Ayman was so much surprised that he circled the apex values in the signal graph and signed “Ogo-go!”. Further analysis showed that the signal traveled from the northwestern part of the Messier 55 globular cluster, located at a distance of 17,600 light years from us in the constellation Sagittarius. Since then, researchers have never fixed such a powerful signal. Did we really get an alien message? Most experts agree that the explanation is completely different. Most likely, the signal from Earth bounced off the space debris and returned to Earth. However, this option is too low probability.
Recently, the Russian astronomer presented the best explanation. His hypothesis is that the “Ogo-go” signal was created by a bizarre hydrogen cloud formed by a pair of comets. It is only surprising that the radio telescope did not record a repeated signal from the same place.
What do we have? Scientists are once again forced to look at a strange data set, not possessing theories for explanations. Ayman still continues to believe that representatives of intelligent life from another world sent a signal. But skeptics point to more natural causes that are not yet available to our understanding.
However, our technologies are developing and one day we will not only decode the “Ogo-go” signal, but also be able to send our own.
