Decoding the Extraterrestrial WOW Signal. Solving the mystery of the signal from the constellation Sagittarius Aliens fly and honk
21.04.2016 21.04.2016 - admin
A sensational message was heard in Moscow at the 15th scientific ufological conference in 2011: it was possible to decipher the strange “WOW” signal received by the Ohio State University radio observatory (USA) on August 15, 1977. For more than 34 years the message remained unsolved.
Russian researchers Yuri Grigoriev and Anna Azhazha made a report on their discovery. They were able to prove that the recorded signal “WOW!” is supposedly of unearthly origin and is a kind of test for people. It was sent by someone intelligent from outer space in response to the well-known radio message from earthlings sent from the Arecibo radio telescope on November 16, 1974.
A simple guess helped decipher the Signal: what if the information behind the character set 6EQUJ 5 is hidden in the same way as the password for logging into an Internet account?
To make the password easy to remember, most often they use a word, writing it in letters of someone else’s alphabet and diluting it with several numbers for reliability.
Thus, the 6EQUJ 5 symbols that appeared on the printout when receiving the Signal fully meet the requirements for creating a password.
But how can you find out whether the information behind the 6EQUJ 5 symbols is really hidden, what encryption method is used, and based on what alphabet?
If Aliens controlled the process of sending and receiving the WOW Signal, then the first candidate for deciphering the 6EQUJ 5 symbols is the English alphabet, since the signal was received at the Ohio State Institute Observatory in the USA.
Any alphabet has the same structure - a fixed alphanumeric order. It is this that underlies human speech and all information encoding operations.
The first and most ancient encryption techniques are “substitution” and “rearrangement”.
In accordance with a secret algorithm, letters and numbers were replaced with each other and rearranged. Obviously, each decryption process required calculation, either in a simple manner or using a complex algorithm.
Considering that the WOW Signal became the first Alien Message to Earthlings, the encryption method turned out to be elementary simple. To determine what was hidden behind the symbols, it was necessary to understand what the WOW Signal could become a reverse Response to.
The only information-filled message from humanity to Space at that time was the “Arecibo Message” of 1974, sent in the direction of the Hercules constellation, located at a distance of 25,000 light years. The mundane was encoded in a binary system. In order to read the Message, the Aliens had to first understand how binary code works.
In fact, earthlings sent the aliens a riddle, a test, or, in other words, a test of intelligence.
The aliens responded in the same vein. Hidden behind the symbols of the Signal WOW - 6EQUJ 5 was the word TEST - TEST, encrypted in two alphabets - Russian and English.
The identified algorithm showed that the Russian alphabet is the main one for deciphering the WOW Signal, and that the information of the alien Message, in addition to the 6EQUJ 5 symbols, was contained in other words accompanying the reception of the Signal. For example, in the letters of the name of the constellation SAGITTARIUS.
In the symbols of the WOW Signal itself, several points of the Message addressed to Earthlings were discovered.
- The signal was a trial TEST for the response intelligence of earthlings, and based on its results - for readiness for Contact.
— The aliens assessed the level of intelligence of Earthlings. Unfortunately, it’s a shame—it’s too small for productive Contact.
— A warning was transmitted about an asteroid disaster threatening the Earth, with an offer of assistance in preventing it.
Today, astrophysicists refuse to even get acquainted with the discovered algorithm for deciphering the Signal they themselves received. Although they declare the importance for all humanity of discovering evidence of extraterrestrial life.
With this approach, the question remains open: were the Aliens right in assessing human intelligence as low, and how can the situation with the establishment of Extraterrestrial Contact be urgently corrected?
We invite you to take part in the discussion of the obtained evidence of the existence of Extraterrestrial Civilizations on
The mystery of the "Wow Signal" radio signal has been solved June 10th, 2017
So, the history of the issue: on August 15, 1977 at 22:16, the night before the death of the king of rock and roll Elvis Presley, one of the most mysterious events in the history of space exploration occurred. Dr. Jerry Eyman, while working on the Big Ear radio telescope in Ohio, detected a strong narrow-band space radio signal. It was a very powerful and stable signal that lasted 72 seconds. Eyman circled the corresponding symbols on the printout and wrote “Wow!” in the margin. (translated from English as “Wow!”). This signature gave the signal its name.
The signal came from an area of the sky in the constellation Sagittarius, about 2.5 degrees south of the Chi star group. However, after years of waiting for something like this to happen again, nothing happened.
Scientists argue that if the signal was of extraterrestrial origin, then the creatures that sent it must belong to a very, very advanced civilization. To send such a powerful signal requires at least a 2.2-gigawatt transmitter, which is much more powerful than any on Earth (for example, the HAARP system in Alaska, one of the most powerful in the world, is supposedly capable of transmitting a signal of up to 3.6 megawatts).
One of the hypotheses to explain the signal strength is that the initially weak signal was significantly amplified due to the action of a gravitational lens; however, this still does not exclude the possibility of its artificial origin. Other researchers suggest the possibility of rotating the radiation source like a beacon, periodically changing the frequency of the signal, or making it only once. There is also a version that the signal was sent from a moving alien starship.
In 2012, for the signal's 35th anniversary, the Arecibo Observatory sent a response of 10,000 coded tweets in the direction of the suspected source. However, whether anyone received them is unknown. Until now, the wow signal has remained one of the main mysteries for astrophysicists.
And only recently, almost 40 years later, researchers from the Center for Planetary Science finally unraveled the mystery of the origin of this radio signal. This is bad news for ufologists and other alien lovers - the source of this signal, with a fairly high percentage of probability, was one of the comets.
Before and after the “Wow Signal” signal was recorded, the “Big Ear” radio telescope spent quite a long time searching for radio signals that could serve as evidence of the existence of highly developed extraterrestrial civilizations. Based on some available data and assumptions, astronomers believed that the best chance of detecting such signals lay in the 1420 MHz range, in the so-called “hydrogen band”.
The "Wow Signal", which was recorded for 72 seconds, the maximum time during which the telescope could focus on a specific point in the sky, had all the parameters that met the search criteria. After registering this signal, scientists made repeated observations for a long time and often of the area of the sky from which the signal came. But all these observations did not yield any results. Analysis of the data carried out subsequently made it possible to exclude the possibility of interference in this not only by traces of the activities of earthly civilization, but also by the interference of other celestial bodies, such as nearby stars, planets and asteroids. And the most suitable and attractive explanation for the origin of the “Wow Signal” signal for a long time remained the activity of an extraterrestrial civilization.
This state of affairs remained unchanged until last year, when a group of scientists from the Center for Planetary Science hypothesized that the source of the "Wow Signal" could be a comet. The frequency of this signal is determined by the high concentration of hydrogen in the comet's "cloud", and the fact that the comet is moving explains the fact that the signal was no longer detected at the observed point in space.
To reach these conclusions, astronomers made a series of 200 observations between November 2016 and February 2017. These observations confirmed that the "prime suspect", Comet 266/P Christensen, was emitting signals at 1420 MHz. Some techniques used by astronomers made it possible to verify that the source of the signals was a comet, and not something else.
Moreover, scientists are convinced that comet 266/P Christensen is not some kind of anomaly. Three other comets observed, P/2013 EW90 (Tenagra), P/2016 J1-A (PANSTARRS) and 237P/LINEAR, also emitted signals at a frequency of 1420 MHz. There is now little doubt that the source of the "Wow Signal" is most likely comet 266/P Christensen or, less likely, some other comet. But in any case, the folder containing data about one of the biggest astronomical mysteries of our time can be safely hidden on a distant shelf.
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On August 15, 1977, astronomer Jerry Ehman was reviewing recordings from the Ohio University radio telescope, hoping to find something meaningful. In what became one of the most famous moments in astronomy, he noticed a sequence of six characters on the printout—6EQUJ5—that caught his attention. No less, he circled the signs with a red pencil and wrote “WOW!” next to it.
It was perhaps a signal from the universe, coming from the constellation Sagittarius. The signal strength was represented by the numbers 0-9 and the letters A-Z, on a 36-point intensity scale, rising 6EQ and falling UJ5, an almost perfect bell strike, lasting 72 seconds. Away with reasoning and doubt. The WOW signal remains the strongest candidate for the right to be called a message from extraterrestrial civilizations.
The acronym SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, but no such organization or group exists. For a long time, various groups were independently collecting information without a single coordinating center. Almost every radio telescope has been used at one time or another by groups of enthusiasts who searched, among the cosmic noise, for signals of intelligence in the universe. The Ohio University project lasted the longest, from 1972 to 1997.
When we hear talk about the WOW signal, the most important thing is to ask where the signal came from and what is in that direction. To understand where the signal came from and, at a minimum, why we know the direction of the source, we need to consider the operation of the radio telescope.
Ohio University's Big Ear radio telescope was, well, huge. He's gone. The structure was dismantled in 1998, and the vacated area was replenished by the courses of the local golf club. The main feature of the radio telescope was a huge structure on the surface of the earth 150 by 85 meters, oriented in the direction of the North and occupying approximately three football fields. Approximately in the middle of the structure there was a pair of receiving bells oriented to the South. The bells were the focal point of a parabolic reflector measuring 110 by 21 meters, which stood to the South of the bells, like a giant movie screen. This parabola received a signal reflected from a flat screen measuring 104 by 30 meters, which stood in the northern part of the structure, behind the receiving bells, and had an adjustable slope. As the Earth rotated, the “Big Ear” combed space along one line. Every few days the angle of the flat screen was changed, changing the direction of the search. The maximum screen rotation angle was 50°. The Big Ear design was called the Kraus Project, named after its designer, Dr. John Kraus. The cost of the project is $250 thousand, including a $71 thousand grant from the National Science Foundation. The entire structure was built by the hands of students.
In 1980, Big Ear was given options that would have been very useful in 1977, when the WOW signal was discovered. The receiving sockets now have the ability to change the angle along the West–East axis. This improvement made it possible to compensate for the rotation of the Earth and record observations in the direction of interest. Since there was no such option in 1977, the radio telescope passed any point in the sky along with the rotation of the Earth in 72 seconds. For this reason, the WOW signal has a duration of 72 seconds.
In 1977, there was no computer processing of signals received by the Big Ear. The information received was printed out on paper and looked at by volunteers. This is what Jerry Ehman did when he made his famous WOW!
The “Big Ear” recorded the so-called alternative signal between two receiving bells. Isolating the signal received by both bells was a way to identify it and clear it of extraneous noise. The cleaned signal was recorded. The receiving sockets were located nearby and were aimed in slightly different directions. The difference was approximately 2 minutes, taking into account the speed of rotation of the Earth. It is known that the WOW signal was received by only one bell, but the recording method does not allow us to know which one. The source of the WOW signal either started or ended transmission in the time interval between the two bells and lasted less than 24 hours, since it was not seen from the same direction either a day earlier or a day later. We do not know the true duration of the signal. From 72 seconds to 24 hours. If we look at the star map, in the direction of the WOW signal source, we will see two lines towards which two receiving bells are directed.
There is nothing interesting in this direction. There are no nearby stars, no radio signal sources, just space. There is no place to actually expect news, but astronomers have sent radio telescopes hundreds of times in the direction of the supposed source of the WOW signal, hoping to detect it again. No hints, no sign of a WOW signal.
You might be interested in knowing what was interesting about the WOW signal? Many different types of radio signals continuously traverse space. What was special about the WOW signal? The answer lies in the frequency of this signal. To understand the meaning of the WOW signal frequency, we need to remember the space radio environment.
There are different types of radio noise. The background component of radio noise is the remnant of the Big Bang, whose value is about 3x Kelvin. That is, by default, the universe cannot be quieter than 3 Kelvin. Below the frequency of 1 GHz there is a lot of galactic noise, which is difficult for a man-made signal to compete with. At frequencies above 10 GHz there is a lot of so-called quantum noise. Thus, the relatively quiet window is between 1 GHz and 10 GHz.
In addition to the physical existence of various noises, the influence of the Earth's atmosphere should be taken into account. It reflects some noise and absorbs some. There are two frequency windows in the atmosphere that are more or less transparent to electromagnetic radiation. The first is the visible spectrum, so our eyes learned to see it in the process of evolution. Second, coincidentally, the frequencies are between 1 GHz and 10 GHz.
In the place of an intelligent alien who wants to send a signal to other civilizations, two points should be taken into account. The first is the broadcast of the signal in the frequency band of the least noise. The second is the clear identification of it as artificially created. So you'll probably want to send a signal at a frequency that penetrates the atmosphere, where there is a minimum of competing background noise, and, for added measure, at a frequency close to that of hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe.
Interstellar hydrogen emits at a frequency of 1.42 GHz. This happens during the transition between two sublevels of hyperfine splitting of the ground state of hydrogen. The unfathomably huge amount of interstellar hydrogen means that this radiation can be heard by a sensitive radio receiver tuned to 1.42 GHz. Interstellar hydroxyl (OH) stably emits close to this frequency, its frequency is 1.66 GHz. We see these bursts on the recording equipment. They will be noticeable no matter what direction in outer space we point the radio telescope.
Astronomers call this frequency band the "watering hole." Firstly, hydrogen and hydroxyl are products of the breakdown of water, the best environment for life. Secondly, these frequencies are universal and will be recognized by any civilization in the universe. Similar to office water coolers gathering employees around them for a watering hole, the watering hole frequency band will be exactly where interstellar communities meet and greet each other.
The WOW signal is received at the expected watering hole frequency of 1.42 GHz. This was precisely the breakthrough of an intelligent interplanetary signal. If humans were ever to receive radio contact from aliens, the WOW signal is exactly what we would expect to hear.
The WOW signal is attractive because it does not fit any explanation. One of the reasons is that this frequency band is protected. No one on Earth works in these frequencies. We know that the signal was not received from a passing aircraft or spacecraft. Because the signal was recorded from a fixed point in the heavens. There are no planets or asteroids in that direction that could reflect the signal to Earth. Any space debris capable of reflection would have to be stationary in relation to the Big Ear and not spinning, which is unlikely. Even complex astronomical effects such as gravitational lensing and interstellar scintillation (like what we see visually when looking at stars) have technical reasons that make them very weak candidates for explaining the WOW signal.
A reasonable radio signal from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius remains the best explanation for the WOW signal. Jerry Ehman, the astronomer who spotted the WOW signal, said he prefers not to draw "large conclusions from the half-suppressive data."
In conclusion, yes, alien intelligence is still a candidate to explain the WOW signal. But there is no evidence of this. A stronger candidate is a much more vague explanation for an interstellar radio source of unknown origin.
Meanwhile, the famous printout with Jerry Ehman's mark rests in the archives of the Ohio Historical Society. Nowadays, when a huge number of amateurs are churning out tall tales, the WOW signal is a genuine artifact, with a practical potential unlike anything else in the entire history of mankind. This may be one of the most exciting mysteries we have. Data about it, under the number MSS 1151, are in the North American Astrophysical Observatory Records. Someday, someone may find the answer. This treasure is worth fighting for.
Translation by Vladimir Maksimenko 2013-2014
One of the most famous radio telescopes in the world is Arecibo. This telescope is operated by an international team of astronomers, constantly monitoring the signals it picks up. Throughout its existence, the above telescope recorded a lot of signals of an unnatural nature. Some of them simply force us to believe that we are not the only intelligent civilization in the entire cosmos.
The nature of some of the signals that Arecibo picked up is so unusual that even the most skeptical scientists are beginning to think about alien civilizations and UFOs. Such signals are called “fast radio pulses” or “FRBs”. The first “FRB” was caught by the famous astronomer D. Lorimer. To be more precise, he found one signal that stood out from the crowd in that it was short, clear, and bright. Its duration was equivalent to several seconds. This happened in 2007, after which the Arecibo laboratory spent five years trying to understand what was causing such signals. Initially, they believed that the Arecibo system simply had problems. Over five long years, they were able to determine that Arecibo is working properly, and FRBs are not glitches, interference, malfunctions, accidents, or signals of natural origin.
The next “fast radio pulses” were recorded by D. Thornton in 2012. This British astronomer, using his radio telescope, managed to catch four “FRBs” at once. They all looked like Lorimer's FRB. By the way, “FRBs” are sometimes called “Lorimer pulses.”
It is also worth noting that outer space is literally overflowing with FRB data. Every 10 seconds, radio telescopes record at least one signal. The daily number of signals sometimes reaches 10 thousand. The most interesting thing is that the duration of each of them is precisely five milliseconds.
D. Thornton often said in his interview:
Initially, we tried not to notice the “FRBs”, since they seemed like interference and glitches to us. Therefore, we did not intentionally try to look for them. But when we started searching for “FRBs,” it turned out that there was no need to look far for them. Space is literally full of these signals.
Scientists suggest that “FRB” can be emitted by objects both in our galaxy and in others. Most of these signals came from the Magellanic Cloud and the Andromeda Nebula. It is impossible to accurately locate the transmitters because all FRBs are too short-lived. Perhaps radio telescopes simply end up on a cosmic “social network” in which extraterrestrial civilizations transmit specific messages.
How do aliens communicate with each other?
A couple of years before astronomers were able to obtain official confirmation that “FRBs” were artificial messages, the Benford twin brothers prophetically suggested how alien beings manifest their activity.
A highly developed civilization will never waste its potential on stupid undertakings, for example, sending signals to all ends of the Universe. As you know, our astronomers, when searching for extraterrestrial life, count on precisely such senseless actions. This means that we underestimate aliens, considering them complete idiots who have nowhere else to spend energy and material resources. Broadcasting signals around the clock requires an incredible amount of energy, which can be spent more efficiently.
The twin astronomers also say the following:
If our space neighbors want to somehow communicate about themselves to their brothers, they will send short, strong, impulsive “news.” You can compare them with those that we throw at each other on Twitter. You can catch such a signal by accident, which is what happened to D. Lorimer.
Independent American researchers carried out an experiment in which they proved that with a 900-meter antenna, we can flash our galaxy once a year with a series of short pulsed signals, and without much difficulty.
In 1967, the similarity of "FRB" caused false excitement in the world of astronomy, after which such signals were no longer taken seriously
It all started with the fact that a certain D.B. Burnell managed to catch a short-lived FRB. This graduate student worked as part of the group of British radiophysicist E. Hewish. Information about this was kept secret for several months. Scientists believed so much that this message was sent by an alien civilization that they even came up with the name “LGM 1”. The full name of the source stands for “Little Green Men.”
Unfortunately, it later turned out that the above signal message was sent by a neutron star. Radiation from such space objects comes in “beams” that sometimes fall within the range of telescopes. This is how the illusion of meaningful transmission arises. A year later, astronomers discovered the first pulsars, and in 1974 Hewish received the long-awaited Nobel Prize for them.
Thus, the sources of “FRB” will most likely turn out to be some stars or other space objects unknown to science, but this is only an assumption.
The mystery of “Wow!” "Signal"
In 1977, or rather on August 15, an incredible event happened: D. Eyman, working as part of the NETWORK project with the Big Ear radio telescope, recorded a strong signal with an amazing duration. In all respects it corresponded to an artificial radio signal. By the way, the title “Wow! Signal”, the signal described above was not given because this was the message that was conveyed to them. It’s just that the aforementioned scientist himself, after recording it, exclaimed “Wow!”
Forty years have passed since the signal was discovered. During this time, astronomers were unable to unravel its mystery. Any reasonable explanation regarding its sender never emerged. What is known is that no natural source even produces such signals.
"Wow!" thirty times higher than the background and had a frequency of 1.42 gigahertz. Its duration was equal to 72 seconds. The most popular hypothesis about the origin of the “Wow!” signal is the one that says he was sent from an alien spaceship.
