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Plum@lemmy.world

Wow! signal (detected on August 15, 1977) (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Plum@lemmy.world to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world

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Despite numerous follow-up searches and hypotheses (including brief consideration of reflections from space debris, interstellar scintillation, and comet hydrogen clouds), the signal has never recurred, and no explanation, terrestrial or otherwise, has been confirmed.

While some researchers have suggested it could represent an extraterrestrial transmission, its single occurrence and lack of replication limit the strength of this interpretation. The Wow! signal has inspired targeted searches, scientific discussion about rare astrophysical phenomena, and references in popular culture.

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The precise location in the sky where the signal apparently originated is uncertain due to the design of the Big Ear telescope, which featured two feed horns, each receiving a beam from slightly different directions, while following Earth's rotation. The Wow! signal was detected in one beam but not in the other, and the data was processed in such a way that it is impossible to determine which of the two horns received the signal.[15] There are, therefore, two possible right ascension (RA) values for the location of the signal (expressed below in terms of the two main reference systems):[16]

From Midway portraying the attack on Pearl Harbor:

https://assets.scriptslug.com/live/pdf/scripts/midway-2019.pdf?v=1729114953

Halsey glances at CAPTAIN MILES BROWNING, his operations and war plans officer.

HALSEY

Pearl found something?

CAPTAIN BROWNING

Yes, sir. Intelligence managed to get a radio fix on the attacking fleet. Unfortunately, it's a bilateral reading. Meaning the Japs are either at 363 degrees...

Browning points down at the map table, his finger tracing a line due north of Pearl Harbor on the chart.

CAPTAIN BROWNING (CONT'D)

...or 163 degrees.

Browning traces a second line heading due south. Halsey's face wrinkles in disgust.

HALSEY

For Christ sake... Pearl is under attack, and we don't even know if the bastards are north or south?

You never think that having a radio system with directional ambiguity built in will matter much until all of a sudden, you receive a single instance of a signal when you really really want to know where it's coming from, and desperately wish that you'd spent the extra to not have that limitation.