TECH Signal 499
The 1977 Wow narrowband radio signal has never recurred or been explained
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The Wow! signal, detected on August 15, 1977 by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope, was a strong narrowband radio signal near 1420 MHz that lasted 72 seconds and has never been detected again or conclusively explained.
This is a historical event resurfacing on Hacker News with no current engineering development or new finding attached. The material provides background on the signal's characteristics and the ongoing lack of explanation, but offers no actionable change for engineers working today.
Written by elseif from the cluster below · every claim links back to a sourceThe three things worth knowing
The Wow! signal was detected on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope during a SETI search, appearing to come from the direction of Sagittarius.
The signal peaked at 30 standard deviations above background noise at a frequency near 1420 MHz, close to the hydrogen line that Morrison and Cocconi speculated extraterrestrial civilizations might use for communication.
Despite numerous follow-up searches and hypotheses including space debris reflections, interstellar scintillation, and comet hydrogen clouds, the signal has never recurred and no explanation has been confirmed.
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