1
00:00:01,560 --> 00:00:04,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff

2
00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:16,440
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, Robert, I want to hear science joke.

3
00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:21,760
Speaker 1: Give me with it. Nature's oxide walks up to Gold said, hey,

4
00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:27,520
Speaker 1: you want to go speak carbon and oh Gold says,

5
00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:32,519
Speaker 1: I just love it. That was a good one to

6
00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:34,880
Speaker 1: get to the elements with that chow. Yeah, we're gonna

7
00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:37,360
Speaker 1: have to do a podcast on the periodic table, I

8
00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:38,760
Speaker 1: think one of these days. Yeah, I think we had

9
00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:40,680
Speaker 1: a request for it. Um, and that comes to it.

10
00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,760
Speaker 1: That joke comes to us a compliments of Facebook, Zach,

11
00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:46,239
Speaker 1: and you can send us all your bad jokes. We

12
00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,479
Speaker 1: love them clearly. Um on Facebook, we're stuff from the

13
00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:52,800
Speaker 1: Science Lab, or you can always tweet us your bad

14
00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:56,000
Speaker 1: jokes too, were lab stuff over on Twitter. But to

15
00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:58,520
Speaker 1: get away from the periodic table today, we're talking about

16
00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:02,080
Speaker 1: STI again and in particular one when one event in

17
00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:05,000
Speaker 1: SETI that you guys may be familiar with. Yeah, we're

18
00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:08,080
Speaker 1: talking about the Wow signal here, right. Yeah. So I

19
00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:10,440
Speaker 1: was inspired to do this podcast because there's a pretty

20
00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:13,920
Speaker 1: cool event that happened in August called set Con and

21
00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:19,760
Speaker 1: this was convention, right yes, and Comic Con, which you

22
00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,040
Speaker 1: were just tweating about the other day. So it was

23
00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:24,800
Speaker 1: organized by the folks at the seti Into Institute and

24
00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:26,959
Speaker 1: that's one of the really the big ones, the big

25
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,240
Speaker 1: cohunas when it comes to study. You know, you have

26
00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:32,760
Speaker 1: people like Frank Drake there, he of the Drake equation,

27
00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:36,399
Speaker 1: Jilt Tarter, she was of course the model for Jodie

28
00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:40,360
Speaker 1: Foster's character in Contact Um. Seth show Stack is one

29
00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:42,440
Speaker 1: of their big people there are one of their big researchers,

30
00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,840
Speaker 1: and so they had some pretty cool events. But there

31
00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,200
Speaker 1: was an interesting debate that arose out of set Con.

32
00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:51,400
Speaker 1: And we've covered this before. Yeah, most of this, uh

33
00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,880
Speaker 1: comes out of some stuff that Stephen Hawkings said in

34
00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,640
Speaker 1: the recent and I think I've been saying already, but

35
00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:01,320
Speaker 1: but then he said it on a Discovery documentary series

36
00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:06,240
Speaker 1: about the universe, Stephen Hawkings Universe, and uh so suddenly

37
00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:07,720
Speaker 1: I think it was like like I said, I think

38
00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:09,320
Speaker 1: it was one of those newsweeks for there wasn't much

39
00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:11,799
Speaker 1: to report yet. We hadn't had an oil spill um

40
00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,080
Speaker 1: that was like a week off. So they're like, whoa

41
00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:16,960
Speaker 1: Stephen Hawking is saying that aliens want to destroy us.

42
00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:20,520
Speaker 1: Let's uh, let's you know, sex up the headlines and

43
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:22,560
Speaker 1: uh and and have a field day with this. So

44
00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:24,800
Speaker 1: you guys might remember we did a podcast that covered

45
00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:27,680
Speaker 1: some of this ground. And right like Roberts saying it

46
00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:31,200
Speaker 1: was just hawking, was theorizing, well, yeah, if there's intelligent

47
00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:34,120
Speaker 1: life out there, maybe these life forms might be inclined

48
00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:36,079
Speaker 1: to harm us and take theirs. Yes. His whole thing

49
00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:38,600
Speaker 1: was like, we we are the model that we by

50
00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:40,720
Speaker 1: which we can try and understand what alien life we

51
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:44,639
Speaker 1: consist of. And if there anything like us, there probably

52
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,639
Speaker 1: kind of jerks, so maybe we shouldn't meet them. I mean,

53
00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:52,359
Speaker 1: that was essentially it. I mean it was. It's kind

54
00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:54,320
Speaker 1: of blee. He makes it a lot more elegantly than

55
00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,440
Speaker 1: I did. But that was it. But you know, I

56
00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:00,080
Speaker 1: mean I'm not indeed he does he did it? Did

57
00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:03,320
Speaker 1: them justice? You did talking justice? Um. So the debate

58
00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:05,680
Speaker 1: that is coming from this convention and that we've had

59
00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,200
Speaker 1: all along is do we actively try to communicate with

60
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:12,360
Speaker 1: extraterrestrial intelligence? What's the benefit? Yeah, like, are they what

61
00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:13,920
Speaker 1: are they gonna come? And do they're gonna come and

62
00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,200
Speaker 1: share their technology with us and and you know, be

63
00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:19,760
Speaker 1: super beneficial or or are they going to conquerss I

64
00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:21,360
Speaker 1: guess the I deal. I mean a lot of it

65
00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:24,960
Speaker 1: is just based in curiosity. You know, the universe is vast,

66
00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:29,000
Speaker 1: it you know, spans essentially forever as far as our

67
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,399
Speaker 1: minds can understand it or grasp it, you know, and

68
00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,240
Speaker 1: so what's out there? You know, Well, curiosity of course

69
00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:38,480
Speaker 1: being the predecessor of innovation and exploration all those good

70
00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:40,920
Speaker 1: ations that we like to do, and that advanced our

71
00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:44,920
Speaker 1: civilization too. Yeah. So if they have the technology to

72
00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,640
Speaker 1: receive our message, you know, for actively broadcasting one of

73
00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:50,480
Speaker 1: those foolish things like did you hear about the instance

74
00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:55,440
Speaker 1: where that social networking site Bibo sending hundreds of user

75
00:03:55,480 --> 00:04:00,280
Speaker 1: generated text messages and um pictures and all this stuff. Yeah,

76
00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:03,920
Speaker 1: that was They covered that in this American Life of Contact. Yeah,

77
00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:06,040
Speaker 1: and there's just all sorts of idiotic things being sent

78
00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,320
Speaker 1: out there. They were basically like some heartfelt things. It

79
00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:12,040
Speaker 1: wasn't all idiotic, but a lot of kind of silly

80
00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:15,120
Speaker 1: things that were being beamed to a planet twenty light

81
00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,920
Speaker 1: years away, an extra planet. Yeah. Maybe maybe it's because

82
00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:19,760
Speaker 1: I like to think maybe it's kind of like a

83
00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:21,839
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory thing. I mean, it's kind of like the

84
00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:24,560
Speaker 1: the NASA who ever found out that there's that there's

85
00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:27,600
Speaker 1: some danger over there, there's some sort of like horrible

86
00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:30,680
Speaker 1: intergalactic civilization. They're like, whoa, We've got to convince them

87
00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:33,200
Speaker 1: that we're really dumb, because otherwise it's gonna come and

88
00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:35,479
Speaker 1: harvest our brains. So let's let's hook them up to

89
00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,120
Speaker 1: our social networking. You know, they're trying to think them out.

90
00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:42,279
Speaker 1: Interesting my theory because earlier, you know, the earlier method,

91
00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:45,480
Speaker 1: like with the voyager missions and all, was to you know,

92
00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,080
Speaker 1: a send naked pictures of ourselves, but also you know,

93
00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:52,000
Speaker 1: be like, look at us, we understand math and and

94
00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:53,720
Speaker 1: you know that we have this grasp of science, and

95
00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:57,200
Speaker 1: trying to convey that we're we're nice, upstanding members of

96
00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:59,400
Speaker 1: the neighborhood and that we should be invited over to

97
00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,520
Speaker 1: dinner sometime. You know that kind of thing. Yeah, so,

98
00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:06,640
Speaker 1: whatever your stance is on sending messages, we really have

99
00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:10,000
Speaker 1: been sending messages indirectly pretty much ever since TVs and

100
00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,400
Speaker 1: radios have been around, Right, Yeah, it's kind of like

101
00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:16,880
Speaker 1: we've in um in contrast to like sending out a

102
00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:19,800
Speaker 1: polite message to the neighbors, It's like we've had our

103
00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:23,680
Speaker 1: windows open with the TV blaring literally with the TV

104
00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:26,520
Speaker 1: for forty years, and now the neighbor is finally coming

105
00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:29,000
Speaker 1: over and being a pan of brownies and you know

106
00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,640
Speaker 1: some music. Yeah, there's actually there's a great Futurama episode

107
00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:37,800
Speaker 1: where the aliens come to invade because there they've been

108
00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:39,800
Speaker 1: like this takes place, you know, like far in the future.

109
00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:43,440
Speaker 1: So they're just now watching an Ally McBeal esque show

110
00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:47,120
Speaker 1: and can you just mentioned Ally mcnel? I forget it

111
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,680
Speaker 1: was called like single Female Lawyer or something. So suddenly

112
00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,400
Speaker 1: they're signing there there the signals is interrupted, and they're like,

113
00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:54,800
Speaker 1: what happened to the rest of on the rest of

114
00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:57,919
Speaker 1: the series, And so they come to invade Earth because

115
00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:00,400
Speaker 1: they want to find out how the series ended. So

116
00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:02,360
Speaker 1: let's do a quick reminder. I know you guys know this,

117
00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:05,279
Speaker 1: but of how we conduct set on Earth, the search

118
00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:08,920
Speaker 1: for extraterrestrial intelligence, it's pretty simple. Basically, we just listen

119
00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,400
Speaker 1: and we watch. And this is interesting and that there

120
00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,279
Speaker 1: is a lot of argument out there over whether we're

121
00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:19,400
Speaker 1: listening and watching for the right stuff. Our method so

122
00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,080
Speaker 1: far has really been to concentrate on collecting the radio

123
00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:25,200
Speaker 1: waves emanating from space. Yeah, we often use radio signals

124
00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:31,240
Speaker 1: as a as a benchmark for a civilization's technological achievement. Right,

125
00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:33,880
Speaker 1: So there are some people like cosmologists Paul Davies who

126
00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,719
Speaker 1: are saying, hey, maybe we should be checking out some pulsars.

127
00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:40,400
Speaker 1: Maybe there's some civilizations out there saying, listen that pulsar.

128
00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:42,400
Speaker 1: We're making it flash like a beacon. How come the

129
00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:45,680
Speaker 1: civilization isn't getting it? It's so obvious. Yeah, that would

130
00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:50,240
Speaker 1: be like a type two civilization or or type three.

131
00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:54,640
Speaker 1: So we look and we listen, and we're basically listening

132
00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:58,440
Speaker 1: by eavesdropping on any radio communications coming from beyond Earth. Yeah,

133
00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:02,240
Speaker 1: we're trying to hear their TV show, is there lawyer

134
00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,400
Speaker 1: shows from some distant point in their past. So the

135
00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:08,200
Speaker 1: basic instrument going on here is a radio telescope in

136
00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:10,560
Speaker 1: the search for steady. It collects radio waves from space,

137
00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:14,200
Speaker 1: and because the cosmic radio waves are weak, the telescope

138
00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,880
Speaker 1: collecting dishes are are really large. And you guys know

139
00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:20,320
Speaker 1: this if you've seen are Cibo and Puerto Rico, or

140
00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:23,880
Speaker 1: pictures of the now defunct Bigger in Ohio, and it's

141
00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:25,640
Speaker 1: actually bigger that we're going to be talking about today.

142
00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:28,840
Speaker 1: These things look more like landscape and then something we've built,

143
00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:33,560
Speaker 1: you know, it's like just huge, huge telescopes. Yeah, yeah,

144
00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:36,200
Speaker 1: and they can survey these enormous chunks of the sky,

145
00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:39,200
Speaker 1: one of like these large chunks of the sky one

146
00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:41,320
Speaker 1: at a time, those chunks for signals, you can take

147
00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:44,920
Speaker 1: this sort of wide field approach and it lets the

148
00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:47,640
Speaker 1: telescope cover the entire sky out of low resolution in

149
00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:51,000
Speaker 1: a short period of time. So you're packing all this

150
00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:53,160
Speaker 1: information and but you know what, you're not getting particularly

151
00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:55,960
Speaker 1: quality information. So you do pick up the signal, well,

152
00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,920
Speaker 1: you're not going to know precisely where it was without

153
00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:01,200
Speaker 1: a high resolution arch and then you know what, what

154
00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:04,200
Speaker 1: if it doesn't repeat right, then you can't because that's

155
00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:07,760
Speaker 1: like we were talking earlier. Repetition is I mean, it's

156
00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,520
Speaker 1: key in science. And I hear heard something interesting, I

157
00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:12,560
Speaker 1: want to hear it again so that I can start

158
00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:16,320
Speaker 1: analyzing it. And you can also do a targeted search,

159
00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:19,600
Speaker 1: right yeah, and this is uh, focusing on a limited

160
00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:23,240
Speaker 1: number like one thousand to two thousand of the sun

161
00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:27,920
Speaker 1: like stars out there for extraterrestrial signals. Targeted search allows

162
00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:30,840
Speaker 1: for a more detailed investigation of a small area that

163
00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:35,199
Speaker 1: we think might be probable location so in in other words,

164
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:37,920
Speaker 1: it's it's it's like it's sounds a targeted search instead

165
00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:40,400
Speaker 1: of a wide search. It'sn't like you know, there's it's

166
00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:42,920
Speaker 1: like when the police decide to search an individual house

167
00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:47,400
Speaker 1: instead of canvassing the neighborhood. Yeah, because they already have

168
00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:49,880
Speaker 1: some suspects in mind. Yeah, yeah, they have some intel

169
00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:52,320
Speaker 1: that they're going on. So and the idea here is

170
00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:54,720
Speaker 1: we have we might have intel to go on because

171
00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,079
Speaker 1: we're saying, oh, well, this particular uh section has the

172
00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:00,080
Speaker 1: potential more of a potential to have a planet and

173
00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:05,600
Speaker 1: life could have evolved on than this like empty area blackness.

174
00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:07,440
Speaker 1: And another thing to bring to the table is that

175
00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:10,400
Speaker 1: our knowledge of exoplanets out there is growing every day.

176
00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:13,400
Speaker 1: I mean we know of hundreds yeah, so yeah, the

177
00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:15,960
Speaker 1: intelligence is improving, so we're getting a better idea of

178
00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:19,360
Speaker 1: where we should be aiming these targeted searches. And in fact,

179
00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:21,079
Speaker 1: that's what Kepler has been out there doing, to a

180
00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:24,760
Speaker 1: hardworking Kepler. So today we're pretty much interested in one

181
00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:28,319
Speaker 1: particular radio telescope by the name of Bigger. Bigger is

182
00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,480
Speaker 1: pretty famous as far as radio telescope scale. That sounds

183
00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:33,560
Speaker 1: kind of funny, Yeah, like I was trying to imagine

184
00:09:33,559 --> 00:09:35,760
Speaker 1: like like one of those teenage magazines that you see

185
00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:38,480
Speaker 1: in the grocery store, and they'd be like the cover

186
00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:40,959
Speaker 1: is like something about like the heart Throb and then

187
00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:44,280
Speaker 1: like top ten radio telescopes and like teenagers are going

188
00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:49,400
Speaker 1: crazy for him. Right, So Vigier was in Ohio, was

189
00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:53,520
Speaker 1: Ohio State University Radio Telescope. And to paraphrase one of

190
00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:56,600
Speaker 1: our old freelance writers, Susan Nasser who wrote about Figure,

191
00:09:57,679 --> 00:09:59,959
Speaker 1: but he looked kind of like a shiny parking lot.

192
00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:02,959
Speaker 1: It had a wall that was sitting on either end,

193
00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:05,800
Speaker 1: and there's one all that one wall that faced the sky.

194
00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:09,680
Speaker 1: Chick collect these radio waves and the waves then traveled

195
00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:11,480
Speaker 1: over the ground, which was covered with a sheet of

196
00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:14,199
Speaker 1: aluminum to preserve the signal as block interference, good stuff

197
00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:16,280
Speaker 1: like that, And then they traveled to the other wall,

198
00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:18,400
Speaker 1: which was curved, and it sent the waves to receiver

199
00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:21,800
Speaker 1: and eventually all that handy information wound up being printed

200
00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,520
Speaker 1: out at a computer. Yeah, they're kind of big eyes source,

201
00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:28,800
Speaker 1: but they kind of have to be to do well.

202
00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:33,720
Speaker 1: So it's kind of sad Bigger is no longer there. Bigger, Uh.

203
00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:36,840
Speaker 1: It went online in nineteen in nineteen seventy three it

204
00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:40,600
Speaker 1: began searching for radio signals. But since Bigger has been

205
00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:42,600
Speaker 1: in service, it has now gone defunct, and I believe

206
00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:45,920
Speaker 1: it has been replaced by a development of residential development

207
00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:48,480
Speaker 1: in Ohio, which I think is really sad. It would

208
00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:50,440
Speaker 1: have been more ironic if you have been replaced by

209
00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:55,360
Speaker 1: a parking lot. So yeah, nine seventy three, Bigger begins

210
00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:58,839
Speaker 1: its work. It's it's very serious, steady work, and one night,

211
00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:02,280
Speaker 1: a couple of years later, we get something pretty interesting

212
00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:06,319
Speaker 1: going on. Yeah, this was back in August, more than

213
00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:09,160
Speaker 1: thirty years ago. It's a hot summer night. Yeah. They

214
00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:13,600
Speaker 1: had big Ear aimed basically just just scan the Milky

215
00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,000
Speaker 1: Way for some sort of a signal, and uh it

216
00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:22,520
Speaker 1: got one, um, a really strong signal yeah. Um, and

217
00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:26,000
Speaker 1: it was long too, one minute twelve seconds. Yeah, it's

218
00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:27,800
Speaker 1: for the For the one minute and twelve seconds, the

219
00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:31,920
Speaker 1: waves were in the telescope search being the signal was strong.

220
00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,640
Speaker 1: It ranged from five to thirty times the background radio

221
00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:38,120
Speaker 1: noise that radio telescopes regularly to pick up. So that's

222
00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:40,200
Speaker 1: an interesting thing to note. Right, there's a lot of

223
00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:42,800
Speaker 1: spaces in noisy place. Um, and there's a little bit

224
00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:44,760
Speaker 1: of a window that you can listen for. And so

225
00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:48,400
Speaker 1: this was stronger than the background noise out there. So

226
00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:52,640
Speaker 1: that was pretty interesting. Yeah, the signal was amazing, and

227
00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:54,360
Speaker 1: uh so of course we kept searching for it. Like

228
00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:56,719
Speaker 1: I said, repetition, we wanted to hear it again. We

229
00:11:56,760 --> 00:11:59,960
Speaker 1: didn't hear it again. We have never heard it again. Yeah,

230
00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:01,960
Speaker 1: that's left in the case with these signals and and

231
00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,200
Speaker 1: the Wow signal as this would soon be called because

232
00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:07,240
Speaker 1: days later professor at an Ohio State, a guy by

233
00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:10,000
Speaker 1: the name of Jerry Emon or Emmin, he saw the

234
00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:12,400
Speaker 1: print out from Big Ears computer. There's no one around

235
00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:14,320
Speaker 1: to tell to talk to poor Jerry, and he circled

236
00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:16,600
Speaker 1: the sequence from the night Big Ear picked up this

237
00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:23,120
Speaker 1: unusual signal and he wrote wow exclamation point. And so

238
00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:27,120
Speaker 1: professor was teaching Astronomy and Electrical Engineering os U. He'd

239
00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:30,000
Speaker 1: worked on Big Ears project. In fact, you're so devoted

240
00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:33,320
Speaker 1: to Big Ear and the telescope's work that after funding

241
00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:35,240
Speaker 1: was slashed and he was like, oh, he came back

242
00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:38,320
Speaker 1: as a volunteer. Wow, because he's kind of like that

243
00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:39,800
Speaker 1: dude who like, you know, it's like you see a

244
00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:41,920
Speaker 1: ghost or something for you know, and then you're like,

245
00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:44,240
Speaker 1: you spend the rest of your life sort of like

246
00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:46,600
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what the world that was. Yeah,

247
00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:48,920
Speaker 1: well I think he has in this case. I really

248
00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:51,559
Speaker 1: think he has, because the Wild signal is huge. I mean,

249
00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:53,679
Speaker 1: why was it so huge, why was it so remarkable,

250
00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:56,319
Speaker 1: and why couldn't have just been some object in space?

251
00:12:58,000 --> 00:12:59,600
Speaker 1: Because we know that there are a lot of natural

252
00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:02,920
Speaker 1: objects like stars and black holes and these emit radio waves.

253
00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:04,920
Speaker 1: But on wow is line of sight in the sky,

254
00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:08,120
Speaker 1: there were no astronomical sources of radio waves at all.

255
00:13:09,320 --> 00:13:11,839
Speaker 1: So WOW did hail from a spot near Sagittarius A,

256
00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:14,520
Speaker 1: which is a pretty big source of radio waves at

257
00:13:14,559 --> 00:13:17,240
Speaker 1: the center of our galaxy. But wow is line of

258
00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:20,080
Speaker 1: sight that night in the sky, it didn't match up.

259
00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:23,000
Speaker 1: It traced to a different line of sight than this region.

260
00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:26,400
Speaker 1: And so really the conclusion that we drew was, of

261
00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:28,760
Speaker 1: all the sources known at the time, WOW did not

262
00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:33,200
Speaker 1: seem to come from a natural object in space, which

263
00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:35,720
Speaker 1: would mean it's uh, It's like Sherlock Holmes said, right,

264
00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:37,680
Speaker 1: once you've ruled out all the natural, then you have

265
00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:43,199
Speaker 1: to worry about the unnatural. Yeah, yeah, well yeah, or aliens.

266
00:13:43,400 --> 00:13:47,160
Speaker 1: But yeah, first us could it have been US. Um okay, well,

267
00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:49,920
Speaker 1: so yeah, interesting the radio signals narrow band, meaning it

268
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:52,679
Speaker 1: range over a few frequencies, unlike most of the natural

269
00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:55,520
Speaker 1: radio sources in space, whose emissions tend to range over

270
00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:59,560
Speaker 1: a huge number of frequencies. And yeah, like you were

271
00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:02,480
Speaker 1: just saying it have come from US. Yeah, we sent

272
00:14:02,559 --> 00:14:05,360
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff into space, So there is the

273
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,760
Speaker 1: argument that that it could have come from some sort

274
00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:12,120
Speaker 1: of you know, Earth produced instrument, A circling satellite on

275
00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:16,240
Speaker 1: a probe, you know, on a program course through the space,

276
00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:18,920
Speaker 1: could have sent the radio waves. Has it sent it

277
00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:22,040
Speaker 1: back to Earth? Um? Well, no, The Big Air Group

278
00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:24,320
Speaker 1: was good. They did their homework, They did their due diligence.

279
00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:26,800
Speaker 1: They checked their lists for instruments in space at the time,

280
00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:29,360
Speaker 1: because it would have been disappointing if they were like, oh,

281
00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:32,240
Speaker 1: that was just something bouncing off of a satellite and

282
00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:34,800
Speaker 1: it would that would have made kind of sense, you know. Well,

283
00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:37,320
Speaker 1: they didn't find any. They checked their lists for all

284
00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:39,360
Speaker 1: these instruments. They didn't find any that were in Wild's

285
00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:41,560
Speaker 1: line of sight. They made a couple of calls, seriously,

286
00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:45,840
Speaker 1: if they missed something. Nothing turned up. Besides that, we

287
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,600
Speaker 1: usually sent instruments to investigate moons and planets in our

288
00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:51,080
Speaker 1: solar system, and the signal came from a plane apart

289
00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:54,600
Speaker 1: from that plane, which I realized it's kind of tricky,

290
00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:58,680
Speaker 1: but it wasn't. It wasn't. Again, it's it's not if

291
00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:00,640
Speaker 1: it's bouncing off of something, as not bouncing off of

292
00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:03,200
Speaker 1: anything that we sent up. So then again you also

293
00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:05,920
Speaker 1: have the fact that man made transmissions weren't allowed at

294
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:10,240
Speaker 1: the cimeter radio wavelength that figure was listening to, right,

295
00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:12,640
Speaker 1: So not only is there something weird out there making

296
00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:15,360
Speaker 1: radio waves, but it's breaking the law. It's breaking the law.

297
00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:19,240
Speaker 1: And then, like Robert was saying, just a little bit ago,

298
00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,120
Speaker 1: there's this later idea that was floated that maybe, in fact,

299
00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:24,320
Speaker 1: the wild signal was a radio wave sent from Earth

300
00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:27,880
Speaker 1: that ransom space debree got reflected back. But again they

301
00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:29,840
Speaker 1: ruled it out. They thought that the pattern didn't quite

302
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:32,840
Speaker 1: seem to match up for that scenario, which really is

303
00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:35,760
Speaker 1: of course extraterrestrials. Yeah, when you rule out all the

304
00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:37,920
Speaker 1: other scenarios, like you're saying, yeah, then you just go

305
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:42,200
Speaker 1: with the the unnatural and it's and so, yeah, we

306
00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:44,280
Speaker 1: haven't had any kind of repetition on this, So it's

307
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:46,560
Speaker 1: it continues to be a mystery and people continue to

308
00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:49,920
Speaker 1: throw out the theories, and he knows it maybe maybe

309
00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:52,480
Speaker 1: one of those things that will never really have a

310
00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:56,360
Speaker 1: firm answer too. And the wild signal is by far

311
00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:59,080
Speaker 1: not the only signal that we've never been able to explain.

312
00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:03,560
Speaker 1: The vaunted a study researcher Paul Horowitz who works out

313
00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:07,840
Speaker 1: of Harvard because picked up legend goes thirty seven signals

314
00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:10,600
Speaker 1: that he was never able to explain much in the

315
00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:13,400
Speaker 1: way that we dismissed all of these factors as causing

316
00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:16,320
Speaker 1: the Wow signal. He's done the same in a in

317
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:20,960
Speaker 1: an old paper. So the signals are out there and now,

318
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:25,080
Speaker 1: and then there's also glupe right, oh glup. Yeah, Strickland

319
00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:27,120
Speaker 1: strictly wanted us to mention this one and this isn't

320
00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:29,840
Speaker 1: so much an extraterrestrial signal, that this was a funky

321
00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:33,880
Speaker 1: signal that was picked up underwater. Yeah, And I think well,

322
00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:35,840
Speaker 1: Strickland and other people like to make the claim that

323
00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:40,720
Speaker 1: it was the HP Lovecraft creation, the you know, the

324
00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:44,800
Speaker 1: the god Cathulu, yes Caul on which we have an article,

325
00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:46,640
Speaker 1: by the way, have you read that article? Yeah, I

326
00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:48,840
Speaker 1: don't have to. I'm all up on that stuff. That

327
00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:52,120
Speaker 1: Cathulo articles really aimed at people who really aren't is

328
00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:56,000
Speaker 1: into Lovecraft as I am, like I should read. Well,

329
00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:58,680
Speaker 1: my theory is that if the glut signal is Cthula,

330
00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:02,480
Speaker 1: it's because Cathula really ticked off at how overblown he's

331
00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:05,720
Speaker 1: become in uh in popular culture, and it is particularly

332
00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:09,919
Speaker 1: irritated about the plush dolls you can buy. Right, So

333
00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,119
Speaker 1: the gloop signal was picked up by one of the

334
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:16,399
Speaker 1: booty's out there, placed I think by a naval body,

335
00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,080
Speaker 1: and it was picked up by the sonar equipment and

336
00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:23,720
Speaker 1: it was said to be so deep and that it

337
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:25,960
Speaker 1: could not have been produced by any animal that we

338
00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:28,760
Speaker 1: know of. Okay, fine, it was an animal produced. Well,

339
00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:31,720
Speaker 1: maybe it was produced by something some rumblings within the

340
00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:34,480
Speaker 1: inner Earth. Yeah, there's a lot in the inner Earth

341
00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:38,560
Speaker 1: that we we don't completely understand. So that's completely feasible. Yeah,

342
00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:40,919
Speaker 1: so that's gloup for you, strick or ancient you know,

343
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,960
Speaker 1: squid god living on the bottom of the ocean. Very scientific.

344
00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:47,440
Speaker 1: But here's another Lovecraft connection. Maybe the whole signal is

345
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:50,000
Speaker 1: actually as is off. Yeah, So what do you guys

346
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:52,520
Speaker 1: think these signals are. We're always putting the call out

347
00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:54,679
Speaker 1: to write in and tell us your thoughts. We'd like

348
00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:57,720
Speaker 1: to hear you think about Wow. Yeah, and uh point

349
00:17:57,720 --> 00:17:59,560
Speaker 1: here at it. Yeah. Check out our checks out on

350
00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:01,560
Speaker 1: Facebook where we're Stuff in the Science Lab, or on

351
00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:05,280
Speaker 1: Twitter where we're lab Stuff. Um, we'll update you with

352
00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:08,840
Speaker 1: all the stuff we're writing about and uh podcasting about. Hey.

353
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:10,399
Speaker 1: So we'd love to hear what you guys think of

354
00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:14,280
Speaker 1: the Wow signal and other city phenomena out there, So

355
00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:16,080
Speaker 1: send us an email it science stuff at how stuff

356
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:19,560
Speaker 1: wrix dot com. Yeah, and be sure to check out

357
00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:22,600
Speaker 1: our Facebook and Twitter accounts as well. On Twitter, we're

358
00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:25,600
Speaker 1: lab Stuff. On Facebook we're stuff in the Science Lab.

359
00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:29,240
Speaker 1: And there's always how stuff works dot com where Cfolo

360
00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:31,760
Speaker 1: awaits you. So that's all we got for today. Thanks

361
00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:41,560
Speaker 1: for listening, guys. For more on this and thousands of

362
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:44,920
Speaker 1: other topics because at how stuff works dot com. Want

363
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,639
Speaker 1: more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the

364
00:18:47,640 --> 00:19:04,520
Speaker 1: house stuff works dot com home page