Fall 2003 Issue

The Night That Elvis Died

 By Dr. H. Paul Shuch,* N6TX

The enigmatic Ohio State University “Wow!” signal printout, complete with Dr. Jerry Ehman’s famous annotation. (Big Ear image)

“Wow!” Dr. Jerry Ehman exclaimed, barely able to conceal his excitement. Then he wrote it down, the most important word he was ever to pen, right there in the margin of the computer printout: “Wow!”

Although Jerry Ehman was not a licensed radio amateur, he was doing what we hams do best—searching for the rare DX. On that August evening a quarter of a century ago, he might well have found it.

The object of Ehman’s excitement was a page covered with letters and numbers, recently spewed out of a computer at Ohio State University’s legendary Big Ear radio telescope. Where most observers would have seen only random data, the mathematics professor and volunteer radio astronomer instantly recognized the hallmarks of artificiality, which he had long sought. “Just maybe,” Ehman thought, “we finally have here proof of extra-terrestrial intelligence.”

Big Ear had already been scanning the skies for four years in what was to become the world’s longest-running SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) experiment ever. An all-sky survey would ultimately sweep the sky around the clock for fully 25 years in search of that elusive fish in the cosmic pond . . . and there it was, in the data printout for the evening of 15 August 1977, compelling evidence that we are not alone.
 

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