Beaks here...
Thirty-five years ago, astronomer Jerry R. Ehman made a startling discovery while working on a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project at The Ohio State University. For seventy-two seconds, the Big Ear radio telescope picked up a strong narrowband signal of unknown origin. Due to the surprising quality of the transmission, when Ehman received the computer printout of the event he wrote "Wow!" next to the signal. Was this evidence of an alien civilization reaching out into the cosmos for signs of intelligent life?
On the off chance it was, yesterday, we got back to them.
For the last few months, National Geographic Channel has been collecting videos and tweets from some of our finest minds to beam out into space. So if there an alien race looking to get in touch with us, one of the first things they're going to see is this
The signal was sent out from the Arecibo Observatory, and, according to the press release trumpeting this endeavor, "each message will have a repeating-sequence header attached." This evidently will tip off the potential recipients that these messages have been transmitted by intelligent life forms. I'll take your word for it, NatGeo.
So now what? I guess we wait and see if they have a response. Hopefully, they have a sense of humor. If not, the invasion is probably underway.
