August 15

On the 15th in 1977, Ohio Wesleyan University’s and The Perkins Observatory’s involvement, since 1963, in the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) project finally bore some fruit. The University was the operator of a radio telescope playfully nicknamed The Big Ear. When I found out about this thing, I was immediately reminded of the tale Little Red Riding Hood: My what big ears you have? The better to hear you with my dear. On the 15th, statistics professor Jerry R. Ehman was reviewing results printed out by the Big Ear and noticed a very distinct signal bearing all the hallmarks of a radio signal of non-solar system and non-terrestrial origin. Upon his discovery of this he made a notation on the print out which was “WOW” and from that moment on this signal has come to be known as The Wow Signal. Personally, I think ‘WOW’ is a bit too much of an understatement for my likes. If I were to suddenly come face to face with convincing evidence of a radio signal sent from deep space what would immediately spring to mind is a quaint two word phrase that begins with Holy. Not one to dabble in phrases that could be considered impolite I will have to give that one a bit more thought. I will let you know if I come up with an acceptable alternative, though I think that will prove to be elusive.