Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2020 May 2
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                   Radio, The Big Ear, and the Wow! Signal
                 Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Rick Scott

   Explanation: [5]Since the early days of radio and television we have
   been freely [6]broadcasting signals into space. For some time now, we
   have been [7]listening too. A large radio telescope at Ohio State
   University known as affectionately [8]The Big Ear was one of the first
   listeners. [9]The Big Ear was about the size of three football fields
   and consisted of an immense metal ground plane with two fence-like
   reflectors, one fixed and one tiltable. It relied on the Earth's
   [10]rotation to help scan the sky. This photo, taken by former Big Ear
   student volunteer Rick Scott, looks out across the ground plane toward
   the fixed reflector with the radio frequency receiver horns in the
   foreground. [11]Starting in 1965, the Big Ear was used in an ambitious
   survey of the radio sky. In the 1970s, it became the first telescope to
   continuously listen for [12]signals from extraterrestrial
   civilizations. For an exciting moment during August 1977 a very
   [13]strong, unexpected signal, dubbed [14]the Wow! Signal, was detected
   by the Big Ear. [15]But alas, heard only once, the source of the signal
   could not be determined. [16]In May 1998 the final pieces of the Big
   Ear were torn down.

    Experts Debate: [17]How will humanity first discover extraterrestrial
                                    life?
                  Tomorrow's picture: a message from Earth
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [29]Robert Nemiroff ([30]MTU) & [31]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([32]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [33]Specific rights apply.
              [34]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [35]ASD at [36]NASA / [37]GSFC
                           & [38]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2005/bigear_rickscott_big.jpg
   3. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#sraplyy
   4. https://naturalimagesgallery.com/
   5. https://www.nasa.gov/specials/nasaathome/index.html
   6. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1996GeoRL..23.1287K/abstract
   7. https://www.nrao.edu/whatisra/hist_ham.shtml
   8. http://www.bigear.org/
   9. http://www.bigear.org/kraus.htm
  10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200417.html
  11. http://www.bigear.org/past.htm
  12. https://www.seti.org/
  13. http://www.bigear.org/wowmenu.htm
  14. http://www.bigear.org/shostak_wow_20021205.htm
  15. http://www.bigear.org/Wow30th/wow30th.htm
  16. http://www.bigear.org/flatdown.htm
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/debate/debate100th.html
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200501.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  22. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  27. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200502
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200503.html
  29. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  30. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  31. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  32. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  34. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  35. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  36. https://www.nasa.gov/
  37. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  38. http://www.mtu.edu/