A Message From Out There?

Have We Received

A Message From Out There?

BACKGROUND

More and more evidence is interfering with old concepts of the Universe. It wasn’t so long ago when we thought everything was what we were detecting in our own galaxy and those fuzzy little lights "beyond" were not really "beyond." Well, they were.

We also thought the expansion of the Universe was slowing down. Well, it wasn’t. We also didn’t know if there were other planetary systems. Well, there are — and evidently in rather large numbers.

We also once thought that life, and intelligent life in particular, might be unique to our planet alone. Well, we are slowly learning that we just may not be so unique after all.

And now we are beginning to get that intriguing feeling that we really are probably not alone. In fact, all that we are learning very strongly suggests that we may be verifying this sooner than you might imagine.

Carl Sagan suggested we might first encounter alien life in our own solar system, on other planets or other moons. We may be making that discovery within the lifetime of some of the original readers of these words. And then, what will be next?

The mathematics of it all is staggering. Consider the common occurrence of planetary systems, stable stars that can be expected to be very nurturing for life, when there are appropriate planets within the "habitable zone," and then consider the billions of stars in our galaxy and the billions of galaxies in the known Universe. And then take into account the fact that the laws of nature we are beginning to understand, seem to be a universal constant throughout it all.

The mathematics brings one to about the only conclusion that can be found — that life, of every possible type and all possible levels, is most certainly a fairly common occurrence. Consider it as an expression of "cosmic pluralism" if you like. Consider it in any manner you want to, but please do consider it — consider it as most likely very real.

Others have. Frank Drake and his famous "Drake Equation" is most certainly a consideration of such things. (See our page on this web site about Frank’s contribution.)

And there was that special digital message sent from Arecibo to the globular star cluster "M13," as our hello to whoever or whatever might be in that neighborhood. And there were our simple little automatic spaceships heading away from our solar system, with messages from us as well. And there are the SETI listening projects. And there is our planet-detecting space telescope array. And on and on it goes.

And let us not forget the methane detected on Mars, a gas closely associated with the life process. And of course there is that Martian meteorite "ALH84001." It really does seem to have what looks like fossilized bacteria embedded within.

FOREGROUND

Now we come to the "Wow Signal." On August 15, 1977, at the Ohio State University Radio Observatory/North American AstroPhysical Observatory (NAAPO), Jerry Ehman witnessed the reception and recording of a startlingly strong and seemingly well organized signal from 19h, 17m, 24s (right ascension) and -27d, 03m (declination). This identifies the source of the signal as coming from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, in a star system approximately 200 light-years distant.