Description: On August 15, 1977, the "Big Ear" radio telescope at the Ohio State University Radio Observatory located in Delaware County detected a highly unusual signal whose source has never been identified, raising the possibility that the signal may be the first record of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. The so-called "Wow!" signal received its name from the note Dr. Jerry Ehman wrote in the margin of this computer printout. This strange signal, unique in radio astronomy history, has never been recorded again. NAAPO, the North American Astrophysical Observatory, was chartered in 1983 as a non-profit organization originally formed to save, maintain and operate the Ohio State University Radio Observatory's (OSURO) 110-meter "Big Ear" radio telescope, Ohio's only world class radio telescope. A consortium of local colleges and a group of volunteers worked together under the NAAPO charter. Ohio Wesleyan University owned the land on which the "Big Ear" stood and sold it to land developers in 1982. OSU constructed the "Big Ear" beginning in 1956 on OWU land. They operated the radio telescope research for nearly 40 years. The developers leased the land to NAAPO from 1983 through 1997 so they could continue to operate the telescope. In 1998 the "Big Ear" radio telescope was destroyed by the developers and some of the equipment and most of the records were moved to the West Campus of the Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07146
Subjects: Astronomical observatories; Life on other planets; Science and Technology; Ohio State University--History; Telescopes
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Delaware County (Ohio)