Ever since radio waves from space were detected by Karl Guthe Jansky in 1932 there have been scientists building radio telescopes and listening to the heavens. In the late 1950s two Cornell University physicists speculated that the extraterrestrial civilizations could be attempting to communicate using radio waves at 1420 megahertz — the frequency of hydrogen, which is the most common element in the universe. This helped accelerate the construction of several radio telescopes in a search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). In 1961 Ohio State University completed the construction of an enormous radio telescope commonly referred to as the “Big Ear.”
The structure was quite strange — looking like a football field with two large parabolic fences at either end. Due to its size and design the telescope could only be adjusted in height or altitude and relied on the earth’s rotation for its horizontal position. On August 15, 1977, an unexplained signal, which lasted 72 seconds, was detected by the Big Ear and discovered days later as a volunteer paging through reams of data. His discovery is noted on the image here showing a portion of the original print out. For obvious reasons it has been referred to as the “WOW! signal.” It may not look like much to the un-trained eye but remains the strongest indication of an extraterrestrial transmission ever detected.
all I saw was EQUUS? I’ve always been fond of the aliens having once saw a FLYING SAUCER for sure from my tree house in Indianola, Iowa at the age of perhaps 14….I ran to alert the neighborhood in full panic! And the next day in THE DES MOINES REGISTER a report of the subject proved I was not alone in my panic….but it was simply a single prop plane with a sign strung wing-tip to wing-tip with a digital rolling advertisement that appeared as a flying saucer in the evening Iowa sky…….. love the aliens to this day!