The WOW! signal - what is it and why was it made public?

Malaros · 01-24-2010, 01:12 PM

I'm sure we've all heard of SETI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI

It is a number of projects to find intelligent life in the Universe. One method is by detecting radio signals in space.

As far as I know, the only radio signal that stood out appeared in 1977, which was nicknamed the WOW! signal because someone circled the data and wrote WOW! by it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

Of course, no one in SETI has ascribed a definite cause of this signal, but a UFO is not to be ruled out. However, it leaves a question.

Why did SETI make this signal public? This must have caused people to believe in UFOs more as it was probably the reason that sprang to mind.

Was it disinfo? The signal's story always includes non UFO theories on what it could be (look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_si...nal.27s_origin on the wikipedia article.)

so it could have been a method of saying that if you get strong radio signals from space, it definately isn't a UFO.

What do you think?

01-24-2010, 01:12 PM	#1
Malaros Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 53	The WOW! signal - what is it and why was it made public? I'm sure we've all heard of SETI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI It is a number of projects to find intelligent life in the Universe. One method is by detecting radio signals in space. As far as I know, the only radio signal that stood out appeared in 1977, which was nicknamed the WOW! signal because someone circled the data and wrote WOW! by it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal Of course, no one in SETI has ascribed a definite cause of this signal, but a UFO is not to be ruled out. However, it leaves a question. Why did SETI make this signal public? This must have caused people to believe in UFOs more as it was probably the reason that sprang to mind. Was it disinfo? The signal's story always includes non UFO theories on what it could be (look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_si...nal.27s_origin on the wikipedia article.) so it could have been a method of saying that if you get strong radio signals from space, it definately isn't a UFO. What do you think?