What is Digg?148 Comments
- skinrock, on 10/10/2007, -4/+69Kind of misleading, the title made me think they have been listening to this signal for 30 years, and it just now mysteriously stopped. It's really just about a brief signal they picked up in '77, which they haven't heard from again.
- LarianLeQuella, on 10/10/2007, -25/+75Inaccurate: The "wow" signal has only fallen off the radar of short attention span idiots (whom sadly are making policy decisions). Even the SETI Hobbyists are still very much aware of the wow signal...
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -5/+46FTA "John Caldwell, a York University astronomy professor, said he had never heard of the Wow signal, despite visiting SETI in 1998"
WHAT???
This guy is an astronomy professor and hes never heard of the 'wow signal'? He should be stripped of any position he holds for being a totally ignorant bastard! Even I'd heard of it (and long time before '98). - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+37huh? Settle down there hot pants. The point of the article is that the "wow" signal has not been repeated since, meaning it is very unlikely it came from an alien intelligent source and was most likely from a natural or artificial terrestrial source. Since after 30 years no new information has come from this signal, there is nothing left to learn about it. Unless you’ve got something to add?
- Sub7, on 10/10/2007, -15/+48The only thing they needed to do to raise more funds was to release The Burning Crusade.
- inactive, on 11/14/2007, -4/+322
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... - JakeCop, on 10/10/2007, -0/+27August 15th 1977?... and the very next day Elvis disappears... coincidence? I think not.
- punchinelli, on 11/14/2007, -13/+36I'm ok to goooooooooo I'm ok to goooooooo I'm ok to gooooooooooo
- m0nk, on 10/10/2007, -2/+24A good write-up, and it gives good insight into why many have forgotten the "Wow" signal, as they should. The technological advances since '77 have been so extreme that unexplained signals can be explained and forgotten allowing more time to search in other ways. I like the idea of looking for "habitable" planets over radio signals, since the likely-hood of an advanced civilization using those communication technologies is so low.
- coffeebot, on 10/10/2007, -2/+18it'll take more than a mere 30 years to discourage a true trekkie
- santacruzach, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14consider that when humankind used the Arecibo radio telescope to send a message out into space in 1974, it was only sent once.
- Jade10145, on 10/10/2007, -2/+15EEEE TTTTTTT, phoonnnnneeee.....has been disconnected, please try your call again later..
- brad1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12It's from the movie Contact.
- Jugalator, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12I don't think there would be a low probability of using radio signals really. It's exploiting fundemantal aspects of physics to send information at the speed of light. Yes, there may be other ways of doing it that we just haven't discovered, but it remains that radio signals are such a bare bones and efficient transmission mechanism that if anything, a communication technology seems likely to build open them rather than replace them. Pulsars and humans alike transmit with radio waves, and I'd be much more reluctant to assume lots of species using DNA and things like that, because of the complexity of the evolved species. This is rather the opposite -- a messaging device that doesn't build upon anything else than the laws of nature.
- RudyV, on 10/10/2007, -11/+21I see what you did there.
- RedAmerican, on 11/14/2007, -2/+12It is a shame this comment is getting buried. Sooooo funny :D
- miakeru, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9The article is not about whether or not people are aware of the fact that the signal was recorded. It's about the fact that it has never been recorded again since then. The signal was not a strong and/or constant signal but instead something like a 'blip' on a radar. Good job for reading the article.
- Jugalator, on 10/10/2007, -3/+12Yes, I thought the same thing, but it's just the old "Wow signal". Wikipedia has more info on it, including the point of origin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow_signal
- theskyman, on 10/10/2007, -2/+11static.....static......"all your base are belong to us".....static.....static....
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+92 3 5 7 11 DRINK MORE OVALTINE
- dunkyp, on 10/10/2007, -8/+16the "WOW stops now"??
- sumrandommember, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Contact w/Jodie Foster
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/ - Mysrt, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8no they speak latin noob
- EarlOfLade, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Looking at the frequency, 1 420, it must have been a alien cell phone call to order some pizza.
- xister, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6I think the reason that they look for radio waves is because they also occur naturally. The idea being that if there's another civilization out there,and since they would have to live with the same physical laws and matter that we do, there's a good chance that they have discovered this also and used them in some form, and they will have traveled light years away from their source just like the radio and television waves emanating from our planet. Regardless of where a civilization is in it's development, if they discovered radio waves (and there's a good chance that an intelligent civilization would) and used them, then that evidence would emanate from their planet like a beacon.
- robisfunky, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6 I think it's a bit presumptuous to assume what kind of technology an advanced, extraterrestrial civilization would be using. We still don't understand fully how many of the creatures right here on Earth function and communicate. Any attempt at declaring what methods a civilization from another star system would be using can be nothing more than wild speculation.
- ryannerd, on 10/10/2007, -6/+12The title is not accurate. It implies that some continual signal was being received from space and has for an unexplained reason "fell off the radar", which is not true. A clever hook of a title, but not accurate.
- theshizzler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Your knowledge of science is lacking badly.
- Khemikl, on 10/10/2007, -3/+8Here are some better articles.. not written by people who believe that we all started around 6,000 years ago:
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=318
From closer to the source:
http://www.setileague.org/articles/calibwow.htm
And for the nerd in the family:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal - rye419, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5two things, 1. space is not static. given the vastness of space, and its ever changing nature, i'm not surprised that they would not be able to recreate it. 2. there is a possibility that the signal was artificial, but explaining it as a terrestrial source proves to be extremely unlikely given that the signal was in a protected part of the radio spectrum, and the constraints around which the signal would have had to to operate make it nearly impossible to originate from a terrestrial source.
- sirlancelot88, on 10/10/2007, -3/+8Instead of contributing your computer's processor power to SETI@Home, download Folding@Home, which tests new ways of folding proteins. The data from Folding@Home goes right into research that has the potential to unlock hundreds of cures for diseases that afflict you and your fellow man. I'd say that's a hell of a lot more use than trying to find transmissions from aliens that probably don't exist.
- moocow1452, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7Prime Number sequence.
Dunno the movie. - ckhw2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Let me explain why you're undermining your God's intelligence by claiming that he designed you -
There are parts of your body that you do not use - your toes, your nipples, body hair, your sinus, and dare I say - your ability to reason! - eexlebots, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5The SETI project keeps finding new and neat sources or radio signals, which even if they are not intelligent life, may prove to be something else which is still interesting and worthwhile.
- bkrock, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4"they are either extremelly far behind us in terms of technology or extremelly far ahead of us"
...or they could be at a similar level of development as us.
Also, "radio waves" doesn't mean that they have AM/FM tuners sending out signals. Radio waves travel well through deep space, so it makes sense that they would be used. - MrDo, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5But everyone with half a brain have heard about the WOW signal some time. And if you are in the area of astronomy I find it unlikely that you have never even heard about it.
- Nightfall01, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4.... so off to work I go?
- IllBeBack, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4It's from the movie "Contact." Jodie Foster says this repeatedly when she's about to take off in the spaceship built by humans but made from plans provided by aliens. Jodie Foster is one of my favorite actors and is still smokin' hot.
- jtb4, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4420 Sounds like the aliens just wanted to cop a dime bag.
- Zeonix, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Unless an extraterrestrial civilization knew exactly where we were, they wouldn't be sending a continuous signal towards us. They'd probably fire off their signals in every direction. Then, when you take the vastness of space into consideration, it could just be that a civilization fired off a signal at us a million years ago and we just got it in 1977. There might be more on the way, there might not be. If the "Wow" signal was natural, we'd probably have received it more than just the one time by now, unless whatever produced that signal only happens once every ____ years
- KibibyteBrain, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7Doubtful. And more so because the "wow" signal was just...very strange. There was no more indication that it was a radio broadcast than a new interstellar phenomena or a quasar with strange behavior, some type of unexpected reflection of earth radio power off a local cloud system, some kind of natural radio oscillator(which would look exactly like that), or anything really. It was just a really big isolated bandwidth peak. This is why I like SETI, when looking for the unexpected, you may find something revolutionary even if its not exactly what you are looking for. Most radio astronomers are looking for a specific thing unlike SETI which is looking for anything outside a list of specific things...
- bootle, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5They've already shown that you can't transmit information faster than light using entanglement
- UtopiaInTheSky, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I could have misinterpreted your comment since it's early in the morning here, but don't atheists support the concept of evolution? Regardless, I don't see what this signal from space has to do with atheism on Earth.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Not only are you referencing a movie about ghosts (not aliens) you don't know the difference bewteen 'their" and "they're."
- bootle, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Any credibility is lost when you use the ordering of letters "likely-hood"
- ElwoodHerring, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Get your feathers down, the poster didn't mention Christians, just "people who believe that we all started around 6,000 years ago", i.e. YECs. Not the same thing at all.
- ldkronos, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3"But everyone with half a brain have heard about the WOW signal some time."
Wait...so you're saying that whether or not you've heard of something is an indication of how smart you are? - craighoxton, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Contact's signal from Vega?
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+330 years may be about a week in the mind of extra terrestrials.
the signal could've been a space ship hitting light speed.
it could've been feedback from two stars colliding.
you have no idea what it might've been. - KidVicious, on 11/14/2007, -0/+3"What's interesting is not that her camera recorded static, but that it recorded approximately 18 hours of it."
"Well, that is interesting..." -
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