SAVE THE WOW! SIGNAL ARCHIVES

Between 1963 and 1998, the Big Ear radio telescope in Delaware, Ohio, recorded decades of astrophysical and SETI data that were never fully studied or published, including the Wow! Signal. Today, this irreplaceable scientific record exists only on paper: tens of thousands of printouts and strip charts stored in a private barn in Ohio. Without action, this history of astronomical discovery is at risk of being lost forever.

Saving this archive requires an extraordinary effort. Each page must be carefully scanned, transcribed, digitized, analyzed, and ultimately published so that the data can be accessed by scientists, educators, and the public worldwide. The Big Ear was decommissioned in 1998 before all of its data could be fully transferred into modern digital archives. No other archive preserves this information, and its full scientific potential remains unknown.

The impact is already real. By recovering and reanalyzing a fraction of these original records, we were able to significantly revise the properties of the famous Wow! Signal, bringing us closer than ever to understanding one of astronomy’s most enduring mysteries, nearly 50 years later. Thanks to recent advances in computing, we have also identified additional unexplained signals in the archive, which we plan to study and publish in our next paper in August 2027.

Your donation directly supports the rescue and analysis of this unique scientific legacy, from fragile paper in a barn to a permanent digital archive that can drive new discoveries for decades to come. This is not just about preserving history; it is about unlocking science that was never given the chance to be seen.