Astronomer Jerry R. Ehman was so surprised, in fact, that he wrote “Wow!” on the printed out data while reviewing it, giving this signal its name. “The Wow! signal is fascinating to me ...

When the data was analyzed later, an astronomer’s marginal exclamation of the extraordinarily powerful but vanishingly brief blip would give the signal its forever name: the Wow! Signal.

Luckily, a chance observation nearly 50 years ago has provided just that. The so-called Wow! Signal, much discussed but only occasionally and somewhat informally studied, has provided a guidepost ...

on the telescope's readout. Now, new analysis of the so-called WOW! signal has revealed that it might have been caused by a hugely powerful laser slamming into Earth. Experts say this was not the ...

The Wow! signal was first detected in 1977 by astronomer Jerry Ehman using Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope. It was an extraordinarily strong radio signal lasting 72 ...