The 110-Meter Ear Built on the Ground

Transcript

1. 01

   A radio signal filled Big Ear's 72-second window—the Wow! signal.

2. 02

   Born in 1910, John Kraus joined Ohio State faculty in 1946.

3. 03

   As an undergraduate, John Kraus became interested in the universe through radio waves.

4. 04

   Kraus's fixed parabolic rectangle was about 361 feet (110 meters) by 69 feet (21 meters).

5. 05

   Big Ear stayed fixed, focusing radio signals on a central point on the ground.

6. 06

   Kraus's team used Big Ear to study distant objects, surveying the radio sky.

7. 07

   On August 15th, 1977, Big Ear detected a strong, narrowband signal near hydrogen's 8.3-inch (21-centimeter) line.

8. 08

   Volunteer astronomer Jerry Ehman found an anomaly in the survey's printout.

9. 09

   IBM 1130 processed it, forcing Ehman to read the paper himself.

10. 10

    The paper readout carried a six-character code in one channel.

11. 11

    The computer printout showed the sequence 6EQUJ5 in channel two.

12. 12

    Those characters showed intensity rise from six to 30, then fall to five.

13. 13

    The highest value, U, stood between 30 and 31 standard deviations above background noise.

14. 14

    Big Ear relied on Earth's rotation to scan across the sky. It could observe a given point for only 72 seconds.

15. 15

    The signal rose, peaked, and fell as expected from a fixed cosmic source.

16. 16

    Ehman circled the reading “6EQUJ5” and wrote “Wow!” beside it.

17. 17

    The signal appeared in only one of Big Ear's two beams, then never recurred. A nearly 14-hour follow-up search found no similar emission.

18. 18

    Big Ear closed in the late 1990s, destroyed after land development.

19. 19

    The telescope vanished, but its strange record remained.

20. 20

    A later study proposed a cold hydrogen cloud could explain the burst, but mystery persisted.

Sources

• Wow! signal - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.orgsecondary
• John D. Kraus | Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge at Ohio Stateresearch.osu.edusecondary
• A SEARCH FOR PERIODIC EMISSIONS AT THE WOW ...scholar.archive.orgsecondary
• The Wow Signalseti.orgsecondary
• This Month in Astronomical Historyaas.orgsecondary
• Ohio State University Radio Observatory - Wow! 20th Anniversary Reportbigear.orgprimary
• Ohio State University Radio Observatory - Explanation of 6EQUJ5bigear.orgprimary
• THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 546 : 1171È1177, 2001 January 10bigear.orgsecondary
• A SEARCH FOR PERIODIC EMISSIONS AT THE WOW LOCALEtechnosearch.seti.orgsecondary
• In 1977, a radio telescope in Ohio called Big Ear picked up a 72-second signal so strong and so cleanly from the direction of Sagittarius that the astronomer on duty circled it in red ink and wrote 'Wspacedaily.comsecondary
• PHL @ UPR Arecibo - summary - Planetary Habitability Laboratoryphl.upr.edusecondary
• The mysterious “Wow!” signal is detected | HISTORYhistory.comsecondary
• The Wow! Signal: A Lingering Mystery or a Natural Phenomenon?seti.orgsecondary