At the big Ear radio scope in Ohio, astronomer Jerry R Ehman volunteered his time for the SETI project. (The SETI project is the search for extraterrestrial life). Many researchers devote their time to this project to find if there is life out there. In 1977, on August 15th Ehman finally hit paydirt. While working one night, Ehman was doing his usual work going through data when he saw something that shocked him. A spike in signal intensity and frequency was spotted. They also found that this signal came from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation. Ehman was so excited he circled the signal, which was represented by 6EQUJ5, and wrote WOW next to it.

Many have tried to explain how the signal came to be, but no one has been able to come up with conclusive results. There have been many attempts to detect the signal again, but nothing has been found. As of July 2022, the WOW signal remains the most possible candidate for extraterrestrial transmission.