Reception of Wow! Signal

Date: August 15, 1977 • Location: Delaware, United States

Big Ear, a radio telescope at Ohio State University, received a strong, apparently extraterrestrial radio signal that became known as the Wow! signal (printout pictured).

The Ohio State University Radio Observatory was a Kraus-type radio telescope located on the grounds of the Perkins Observatory at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio from 1963 to 1998. Known as Big Ear, the observatory was part of Ohio State University's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project. The telescope was designed by John D. Kraus. Construction of the Big Ear began in 1956 and was completed in 1961, and it was finally turned on for the first time in 1963.