1
00:00:02,711 --> 00:00:05,130
(wind gusting)

2
00:00:19,519 --> 00:00:22,439
(ominous music)

3
00:00:28,153 --> 00:00:29,946
- [Man 1]
Most people involved in--

4
00:00:30,030 --> 00:00:31,197
- [Woman 1]
Looking for a signal--

5
00:00:32,532 --> 00:00:33,950
- [Man 1] Searching for
extraterrestrial intelligence.

6
00:00:33,408 --> 00:00:35,452
- [Woman 1]
From an alien civilization.

7
00:00:34,909 --> 00:00:37,328
(overlapping speech
drowning each other out)

8
00:00:36,995 --> 00:00:39,164
- [Man 1] Never to be explained.

9
00:00:39,873 --> 00:00:43,251
(suspenseful music)

10
00:00:52,594 --> 00:00:56,639
- [Robert Dixon]
Science always seeks the unknown

11
00:00:59,559 --> 00:01:02,312
for answers that we
don't understand yet.

12
00:01:09,194 --> 00:01:12,113
Why did Columbus sail
across the ocean?

13
00:01:14,824 --> 00:01:16,534
To see what's there,

14
00:01:16,618 --> 00:01:19,245
and discover other
people's or other lands.

15
00:01:23,708 --> 00:01:25,502
Are we alone in the universe,

16
00:01:24,876 --> 00:01:28,380
or is there really other
intelligent life out there?

17
00:01:29,005 --> 00:01:31,091
- [Seth Shostak]
The question of intelligent life

18
00:01:31,174 --> 00:01:33,176
is really a big question
because it goes beyond

19
00:01:32,926 --> 00:01:34,719
just having biology.

20
00:01:34,302 --> 00:01:36,346
It's biology that
got clever enough

21
00:01:36,012 --> 00:01:38,098
to understand the universe.

22
00:01:39,224 --> 00:01:41,184
- [Robert Gray] If there are
other civilizations out there

23
00:01:41,267 --> 00:01:43,812
we automatically know that all

24
00:01:43,311 --> 00:01:47,774
the questions of life
are answered yes.

25
00:01:49,109 --> 00:01:52,862
- If we did
discover an actual signal

26
00:01:52,529 --> 00:01:54,364
from an alien civilization,

27
00:01:53,822 --> 00:01:57,992
it would profoundly
change human beings.

28
00:01:59,035 --> 00:02:00,537
- [Seth Shostak]
This is discovery.

29
00:01:59,953 --> 00:02:02,247
It isn't the kind of
science you learn about

30
00:02:01,663 --> 00:02:03,957
in middle school where
you have an hypothesis

31
00:02:03,707 --> 00:02:05,250
and you try and falsify.

32
00:02:05,333 --> 00:02:06,835
You can't falsify
this hypothesis.

33
00:02:06,918 --> 00:02:08,294
You can't prove
they're not out there.

34
00:02:08,378 --> 00:02:10,296
All you can do is
discover that they are.

35
00:02:10,797 --> 00:02:13,675
- [Robert Dixon]
So we have these 50 digits,

36
00:02:13,758 --> 00:02:16,094
so it looks like a
bunch of random numbers.

37
00:02:15,427 --> 00:02:21,266
- 6EQUJ5, that was exactly
what we were looking for.

38
00:02:22,392 --> 00:02:24,019
- [Robert Gray] I don't think
many people have looked

39
00:02:23,727 --> 00:02:26,187
into it in much detail.

40
00:02:25,478 --> 00:02:28,148
- [Man 2] It's an intriguing
case 'cause it's a mystery.

41
00:02:28,231 --> 00:02:29,983
We don't know what it was.

42
00:02:29,357 --> 00:02:33,319
- [Tom Burns] It was
the strongest signal I ever saw.

43
00:02:33,403 --> 00:02:36,364
An enormously powerful signal.

44
00:02:37,699 --> 00:02:40,118
- It is the best
evidence that we know of,

45
00:02:39,576 --> 00:02:42,328
of coming from some
other civilization.

46
00:02:42,162 --> 00:02:43,413
(static hissing)

47
00:02:43,496 --> 00:02:46,750
(electronic warbling)

48
00:02:50,128 --> 00:02:52,714
(gentle music)

49
00:02:58,261 --> 00:02:59,721
- [Narrator] Why do we search?

50
00:03:01,014 --> 00:03:03,099
Mankind had always
been fascinated

51
00:03:02,557 --> 00:03:05,352
by the possibility
of life beyond Earth.

52
00:03:05,935 --> 00:03:09,105
The idea of other
civilizations thriving

53
00:03:09,189 --> 00:03:12,317
on distant planets
captivates the imagination.

54
00:03:13,985 --> 00:03:15,904
We are driven,
perhaps by the hope,

55
00:03:15,987 --> 00:03:18,865
that humanity is not
alone in the universe.

56
00:03:18,239 --> 00:03:22,577
And by science's promise
to always seek the unknown.

57
00:03:25,372 --> 00:03:29,834
On August 15, 1977, a
massive radio telescope

58
00:03:29,376 --> 00:03:32,337
operated by the Ohio
State University

59
00:03:32,420 --> 00:03:36,675
detected an unusually powerful
signal from deep space.

60
00:03:36,758 --> 00:03:38,677
The signal had all
the characteristics

61
00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,012
scientists expected
in a transmission

62
00:03:40,470 --> 00:03:44,224
from an intelligent
extraterrestrial source.

63
00:03:43,890 --> 00:03:46,893
The event lasted for 72 seconds

64
00:03:46,976 --> 00:03:49,145
and was never heard again.

65
00:03:49,229 --> 00:03:52,649
Named the Wow! signal, it
was a tantalizing moment

66
00:03:52,148 --> 00:03:55,318
in the search for
extraterrestrial life.

67
00:03:54,609 --> 00:03:59,406
And for the relatively young
science of radio astronomy.

68
00:03:58,780 --> 00:04:03,410
- [Robert Dixon] Started going
up, it went 6EQUJ5

69
00:04:03,493 --> 00:04:05,662
as it faded off
to the other side.

70
00:04:05,161 --> 00:04:08,206
That's a tremendously
strong signal.

71
00:04:08,289 --> 00:04:11,167
We'd never seen anything
like that before.

72
00:04:10,792 --> 00:04:12,460
And that told us
that this really

73
00:04:12,544 --> 00:04:14,838
is a very strong
narrow band signal

74
00:04:14,921 --> 00:04:17,132
that did not come from
some natural source.

75
00:04:18,758 --> 00:04:21,094
- [Narrator] Most are familiar
with the traditional science

76
00:04:20,593 --> 00:04:23,930
of optical, or visible
light, astronomy.

77
00:04:24,514 --> 00:04:27,058
Optical telescopes
capture light rays

78
00:04:27,142 --> 00:04:30,061
and magnify distant objects
for closer observation

79
00:04:30,145 --> 00:04:31,563
by the human eye.

80
00:04:32,230 --> 00:04:36,484
In comparison, radio astronomy
focuses on the invisible,

81
00:04:35,734 --> 00:04:40,572
the radio frequency portion of
the electromagnetic spectrum.

82
00:04:40,030 --> 00:04:43,575
Radio telescopes are
specialized antennas

83
00:04:43,658 --> 00:04:47,078
and radio receivers that
can detect the radio waves

84
00:04:46,536 --> 00:04:49,998
emanating from distant
celestial objects.

85
00:04:50,540 --> 00:04:54,127
- Every object that
produces energy,

86
00:04:54,210 --> 00:04:58,340
every star, every
galaxy, produces energy

87
00:04:58,006 --> 00:05:00,925
all along the energy range,

88
00:05:00,425 --> 00:05:03,678
which we call the
electromagnetic spectrum.

89
00:05:03,762 --> 00:05:06,222
The trouble with
a visual telescope

90
00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:10,185
is that it only looks at
a part of that spectrum,

91
00:05:10,268 --> 00:05:12,562
why I have one right here,

92
00:05:12,645 --> 00:05:15,815
that is very narrow
and a very small part.

93
00:05:15,899 --> 00:05:20,153
We actually see a very
small part of the universe.

94
00:05:19,611 --> 00:05:23,865
On one hand you have
the higher energies

95
00:05:23,948 --> 00:05:28,119
like ultraviolet and
xrays and gamma rays.

96
00:05:28,203 --> 00:05:31,164
On the lower end,
down below the red,

97
00:05:30,622 --> 00:05:33,333
you have the very low
frequency energies

98
00:05:33,083 --> 00:05:36,252
like infrared and radio.

99
00:05:36,336 --> 00:05:40,006
This is very, very narrow.

100
00:05:40,090 --> 00:05:42,759
It happens to be the
part we're interested in,

101
00:05:42,842 --> 00:05:46,721
because it's the part that
we can actually detect.

102
00:05:46,179 --> 00:05:50,308
So you can look at a
lot more information

103
00:05:51,059 --> 00:05:54,562
about a star at the
radio end of the spectrum

104
00:05:53,978 --> 00:05:57,524
than the very limited
amount of information

105
00:05:57,607 --> 00:06:00,235
you get in the visual
end of the spectrum.

106
00:06:00,902 --> 00:06:03,196
- [Narrator] Although
radio waves from space

107
00:06:02,654 --> 00:06:06,199
were first detected
in the early 1930s,

108
00:06:05,448 --> 00:06:09,285
and the first radio telescope
was built shortly thereafter,

109
00:06:08,702 --> 00:06:12,580
worldwide interest in
radio astronomy escalated

110
00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,166
in the years following
World War II.

111
00:06:15,250 --> 00:06:17,377
The United States
was eager to invest

112
00:06:17,460 --> 00:06:19,254
in this new branch of science.

113
00:06:19,337 --> 00:06:20,964
- [Karen O'Neil] We were kind of
in the space race.

114
00:06:20,505 --> 00:06:23,717
We were in this idea
that our country

115
00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:25,468
wanted to be the
best in the world

116
00:06:25,010 --> 00:06:27,220
in terms of science
and engineering.

117
00:06:26,553 --> 00:06:29,723
We wanted to be out there
and were willing to spend,

118
00:06:29,222 --> 00:06:31,850
a lot of money,
frankly, to do that.

119
00:06:31,182 --> 00:06:34,060
So we spent a lot of money,
we got men on the moon,

120
00:06:34,144 --> 00:06:36,312
we built telescopes,
we built a lot

121
00:06:36,396 --> 00:06:39,399
of fundamental science
facilities here in the country.

122
00:06:39,107 --> 00:06:40,900
And that was fantastic,

123
00:06:40,984 --> 00:06:44,738
and that just led
to so many advances.

124
00:06:44,112 --> 00:06:46,322
- [Michael Holstine] You know,
after World War II

125
00:06:45,739 --> 00:06:48,199
there was a lot of
technological achievement,

126
00:06:48,283 --> 00:06:49,826
especially in electronics

127
00:06:49,909 --> 00:06:52,704
and with radar coming on
the scene and all of that.

128
00:06:52,203 --> 00:06:54,622
But, you know, the
war took its toll

129
00:06:54,998 --> 00:06:57,751
on most of the nations.

130
00:06:57,417 --> 00:07:00,879
But for whatever reason, Europe,

131
00:07:00,420 --> 00:07:03,965
especially England
and Australia,

132
00:07:04,049 --> 00:07:07,052
really ramped up radio
astronomy research.

133
00:07:07,135 --> 00:07:08,595
The United States didn't.

134
00:07:09,971 --> 00:07:13,892
They kind of lagged behind
until about mid-50s.

135
00:07:13,975 --> 00:07:15,935
Part of the reason
was that instruments

136
00:07:16,019 --> 00:07:19,022
to detect radio
signals from space

137
00:07:18,688 --> 00:07:20,899
are just so expensive to build.

138
00:07:20,982 --> 00:07:24,361
A single university
generally can't afford

139
00:07:24,444 --> 00:07:27,614
to build what you'd need
to build to be successful.

140
00:07:28,281 --> 00:07:31,826
- [Narrator] As radio
astronomy continued to evolve,

141
00:07:31,910 --> 00:07:33,953
a young professor of
electrical engineering

142
00:07:33,620 --> 00:07:35,789
at the Ohio State University

143
00:07:35,246 --> 00:07:38,541
observed its development
with keen interest.

144
00:07:38,291 --> 00:07:41,127
His name was John Kraus.

145
00:07:42,420 --> 00:07:47,050
In the 1930s, Kraus followed
scientist Karl Jansky's

146
00:07:46,591 --> 00:07:49,052
historic discovery
of radio noise

147
00:07:48,510 --> 00:07:52,430
flowing from the center
of the Milky Way galaxy.

148
00:07:52,514 --> 00:07:54,182
He was fascinated
by the potential

149
00:07:54,265 --> 00:07:56,393
for using cosmic radio waves,

150
00:07:56,476 --> 00:07:59,646
rather than visible light,
to observe the universe.

151
00:08:00,939 --> 00:08:03,108
- [John] In 1930,
essentially all that we knew

152
00:08:03,191 --> 00:08:04,734
about the heavens had come

153
00:08:04,234 --> 00:08:07,612
from what we could
see or photograph.

154
00:08:07,696 --> 00:08:10,240
Karl Jansky changed all that.

155
00:08:10,323 --> 00:08:11,991
A universe of radio sounds

156
00:08:11,324 --> 00:08:15,120
to which mankind had been
deaf since time immemorial

157
00:08:14,577 --> 00:08:17,914
now suddenly burst
forth in full chorus.

158
00:08:18,498 --> 00:08:22,836
- [Narrator] During World War
II, Kraus met Grote Reber,

159
00:08:22,293 --> 00:08:25,714
a radio engineer from
Wheaton, Illinois.

160
00:08:25,171 --> 00:08:28,425
Reber had continued
Karl Jansky's work,

161
00:08:28,508 --> 00:08:31,177
scanning the Milky Way
with a homemade receiver

162
00:08:30,552 --> 00:08:35,098
and a 30-foot dish antenna
built in his backyard.

163
00:08:34,639 --> 00:08:37,475
For a decade he was
the world's only

164
00:08:37,225 --> 00:08:39,310
active radio astronomer,

165
00:08:39,394 --> 00:08:42,605
producing the first
maps of the radio sky.

166
00:08:42,105 --> 00:08:45,191
His antenna design
was the forerunner

167
00:08:44,858 --> 00:08:47,360
of modern radio telescopes.

168
00:08:47,902 --> 00:08:50,280
- [John] He told me
about his equipment

169
00:08:49,904 --> 00:08:51,823
and observations
of the Milky Way

170
00:08:51,906 --> 00:08:54,200
with a contagious enthusiasm.

171
00:08:54,284 --> 00:08:56,077
If we had not been at war,

172
00:08:55,618 --> 00:08:57,579
I think I would have
started building

173
00:08:57,287 --> 00:08:59,247
a radio telescope then.

174
00:08:59,330 --> 00:09:02,167
But it was not until
10 years later,

175
00:09:02,250 --> 00:09:04,336
at the Ohio State University,

176
00:09:04,419 --> 00:09:06,046
that I had a chance to do it.

177
00:09:07,922 --> 00:09:10,342
- [Narrator] When John Kraus
joined the Ohio State faculty

178
00:09:09,799 --> 00:09:14,554
in 1946, he invented
the helical antenna.

179
00:09:14,637 --> 00:09:16,806
The unique
corkscrew-shaped design

180
00:09:16,348 --> 00:09:19,184
would ultimately
find widespread use

181
00:09:18,850 --> 00:09:20,518
in satellite communication.

182
00:09:21,895 --> 00:09:25,774
In 1952, Kraus utilized
the new antenna design

183
00:09:25,857 --> 00:09:28,693
to build his first
radio telescope.

184
00:09:28,234 --> 00:09:30,904
With the help of
Ohio State students,

185
00:09:30,570 --> 00:09:33,073
he constructed a 50-meter array

186
00:09:33,156 --> 00:09:36,368
of helical antennas on
university farmland.

187
00:09:36,242 --> 00:09:39,454
While a sky survey conducted
with the helix array

188
00:09:38,995 --> 00:09:42,207
proved successful,
Kraus realized

189
00:09:41,664 --> 00:09:44,959
that a much bigger
telescope was needed.

190
00:09:45,043 --> 00:09:47,253
Within a few years,
he was ready to build

191
00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:49,255
the massive radio telescope

192
00:09:49,339 --> 00:09:52,467
that would ultimately
capture the Wow! signal.

193
00:09:53,134 --> 00:09:55,303
- He had grand plans of making

194
00:09:55,387 --> 00:09:58,390
the telescope 2,000 feet wide.

195
00:09:59,265 --> 00:10:01,685
Money for that was
not forthcoming,

196
00:10:01,768 --> 00:10:04,646
so I saw at one point
he had reduced that

197
00:10:04,062 --> 00:10:09,067
to 720 feet wide, money
was not forthcoming,

198
00:10:08,692 --> 00:10:12,529
so he reduced it
to 360 feet wide

199
00:10:12,278 --> 00:10:14,447
for the paraboloid.

200
00:10:15,323 --> 00:10:19,911
- [Narrator] In 1956, John
Kraus negotiated an agreement

201
00:10:19,577 --> 00:10:22,330
to utilize a 20-acre site owned

202
00:10:21,996 --> 00:10:24,958
by Ohio Wesleyan University.

203
00:10:25,041 --> 00:10:26,418
The property was dedicated for

204
00:10:26,501 --> 00:10:28,628
the construction and operation

205
00:10:28,712 --> 00:10:32,132
of the Ohio State University
Radio Observatory.

206
00:10:32,215 --> 00:10:35,260
This large radio telescope,
designed to listen

207
00:10:35,343 --> 00:10:37,053
for signals in deep space,

208
00:10:36,553 --> 00:10:40,181
was appropriately
nicknamed the Big Ear.

209
00:10:41,641 --> 00:10:44,060
With a grant from the
National Science Foundation,

210
00:10:44,144 --> 00:10:48,732
Kraus began construction on
the Big Ear in late 1956.

211
00:10:48,815 --> 00:10:51,192
Under his supervision,
university students

212
00:10:51,276 --> 00:10:53,570
did much of the
construction work.

213
00:10:53,069 --> 00:10:57,157
Ultimately, the process
took five years.

214
00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,326
- When John Kraus got the
money to build the place

215
00:10:59,993 --> 00:11:02,287
he didn't have very much money,

216
00:11:02,370 --> 00:11:07,459
so between 1956 and
1963 they constructed

217
00:11:08,918 --> 00:11:12,672
this gigantic thing, as big
as three football fields,

218
00:11:13,214 --> 00:11:16,176
with the use mostly
of volunteer helpers

219
00:11:16,259 --> 00:11:19,304
and graduate students,
so it took a long time.

220
00:11:19,387 --> 00:11:22,766
- [Robert Dixon] The design
of Big Ear was intended

221
00:11:22,223 --> 00:11:24,476
to make it the most
sensitive telescope

222
00:11:24,559 --> 00:11:26,811
for the least amount of money.

223
00:11:26,144 --> 00:11:30,231
And it was John Kraus'
original design that did that.

224
00:11:29,522 --> 00:11:32,817
- [Jerry Ehman] There's only one
other telescope in the world

225
00:11:32,901 --> 00:11:34,319
that was built like it

226
00:11:33,777 --> 00:11:37,822
and that was in
France, Nancay, France.

227
00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:39,366
- [Robert Dixon]
And if you can imagine here,

228
00:11:38,907 --> 00:11:42,369
a large flat surface
of aluminum foil

229
00:11:42,452 --> 00:11:44,287
three acres in extent.

230
00:11:43,745 --> 00:11:48,166
At one ends was a curved
parabolic reflector

231
00:11:47,874 --> 00:11:50,001
standing on the ground.

232
00:11:49,542 --> 00:11:53,254
On the other end
was a flat surface,

233
00:11:53,004 --> 00:11:54,756
tilted up like this,

234
00:11:54,839 --> 00:11:57,008
which could be
tilted up and down.

235
00:11:57,092 --> 00:11:58,635
And out in the middle
of the ground plain

236
00:11:58,718 --> 00:12:00,303
there was some things
that we call feed horns

237
00:12:00,387 --> 00:12:02,180
that look like scoops,

238
00:12:02,263 --> 00:12:04,140
which were pointed toward
the parabolic part,

239
00:12:03,682 --> 00:12:06,059
and they scooped
up the radio waves.

240
00:12:05,725 --> 00:12:08,144
Signals came down from the sky,

241
00:12:07,686 --> 00:12:10,063
they bounced off
this flat reflector,

242
00:12:10,146 --> 00:12:13,900
traveled horizontally across
this big field of aluminum

243
00:12:13,566 --> 00:12:15,568
to the parabolic reflector.

244
00:12:15,652 --> 00:12:18,446
Which focused them down
to these scoop-like horns

245
00:12:18,530 --> 00:12:20,740
sitting in the middle
of the ground plain.

246
00:12:21,032 --> 00:12:24,160
- [Narrator] Unlike
today's parabolic dish antennas,

247
00:12:24,244 --> 00:12:26,746
the Big Ear could not be
electronically controlled

248
00:12:26,830 --> 00:12:28,832
to pan the sky on demand.

249
00:12:28,206 --> 00:12:32,335
Rather, it depended on
the rotation of the Earth.

250
00:12:32,419 --> 00:12:35,672
- [Robert Dixon]
The telescope could not steer
in the left-right direction.

251
00:12:35,755 --> 00:12:38,883
You could only steer in
the up and down direction.

252
00:12:38,967 --> 00:12:42,721
But that's okay, because we
can center a certain angle

253
00:12:42,262 --> 00:12:44,806
and then allow
the Earth to turn.

254
00:12:44,180 --> 00:12:47,225
And as the Earth turned,
then the beam was swept up,

255
00:12:47,308 --> 00:12:49,227
a little strip all
around the whole sky

256
00:12:48,893 --> 00:12:51,896
in 24 hours as the Earth turned.

257
00:12:51,396 --> 00:12:53,356
And we'd sit there
for a couple days

258
00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:55,608
and then we'd change
the angle slightly

259
00:12:55,275 --> 00:12:57,110
and cover another little stripe

260
00:12:57,193 --> 00:12:58,945
all around the
whole sky like that.

261
00:12:58,361 --> 00:13:01,448
So in that way we could
cover the whole sky.

262
00:13:04,659 --> 00:13:08,288
- [Narrator] When completed
in the early 1960s,

263
00:13:08,371 --> 00:13:09,873
the Big Ear was
one of the world's

264
00:13:09,956 --> 00:13:12,208
largest radio telescopes.

265
00:13:11,541 --> 00:13:15,628
It was designed to be a
versatile survey instrument,

266
00:13:14,961 --> 00:13:20,008
capable of observing large
sections of the radio sky.

267
00:13:19,466 --> 00:13:21,426
- [Tom Burns]
When it was finally built,

268
00:13:21,843 --> 00:13:26,681
using its old computer
with 16K of memory

269
00:13:26,765 --> 00:13:28,266
to help collect the data,

270
00:13:28,350 --> 00:13:30,560
they managed for
the next 10 years

271
00:13:30,643 --> 00:13:34,481
to do a map of the
entire visible sky.

272
00:13:35,648 --> 00:13:39,444
- [Robert Dixon] I came here
in 1963 as a graduate student

273
00:13:39,527 --> 00:13:41,821
working for
Professor John Kraus.

274
00:13:41,237 --> 00:13:44,407
I was placed in charge
of analyzing the data

275
00:13:44,074 --> 00:13:46,076
coming from our radio telescope,

276
00:13:45,742 --> 00:13:48,244
which had just gone on the air.

277
00:13:48,328 --> 00:13:50,955
We were looking for natural
sources of radio signals,

278
00:13:50,705 --> 00:13:53,208
not intelligent sources.

279
00:13:53,291 --> 00:13:55,043
That's why the
telescope was built.

280
00:13:56,169 --> 00:13:59,255
This was in the early
days of radio astronomy.

281
00:13:58,713 --> 00:14:01,466
When we were just really
getting established

282
00:14:01,216 --> 00:14:03,468
as a mainstream science.

283
00:14:04,594 --> 00:14:06,638
And there have not
been any big survey

284
00:14:06,721 --> 00:14:08,223
of the entire sky to discover

285
00:14:08,306 --> 00:14:10,266
all the radio signals
that were there.

286
00:14:11,309 --> 00:14:14,229
People had used dish antennas.

287
00:14:13,895 --> 00:14:15,689
They've used antennas like that

288
00:14:15,772 --> 00:14:18,566
to look at certain
stars, certain galaxies,

289
00:14:18,650 --> 00:14:20,902
and study them in detail.

290
00:14:20,985 --> 00:14:24,155
But nobody had
searched the whole sky.

291
00:14:24,239 --> 00:14:26,991
So we were like the
pioneer explorers.

292
00:14:27,075 --> 00:14:30,203
And we created this huge
catalog of 20,000 objects

293
00:14:30,286 --> 00:14:32,122
and we published huge maps

294
00:14:31,413 --> 00:14:35,375
showing what the sky looked
like to the radio telescope.

295
00:14:35,458 --> 00:14:39,671
- They discovered
objects like quasars

296
00:14:39,170 --> 00:14:43,216
and observed them,
which at the time

297
00:14:43,299 --> 00:14:45,719
were the most distant objects

298
00:14:45,385 --> 00:14:49,097
ever observed by any telescope.

299
00:14:49,180 --> 00:14:51,266
One of the quasars,
for instance,

300
00:14:51,349 --> 00:14:54,227
was about 12 billion
light years away,

301
00:14:54,310 --> 00:14:59,107
which we now know is
considerably far back,

302
00:14:58,815 --> 00:15:01,276
almost to the beginning

303
00:15:00,692 --> 00:15:04,404
of the creation of the
universe in the Big Bang.

304
00:15:05,488 --> 00:15:09,367
- They discovered
20,000 radio sources.

305
00:15:09,451 --> 00:15:11,870
Only 10,000 were
known at the time.

306
00:15:11,953 --> 00:15:15,707
So it was a big deal,

307
00:15:15,790 --> 00:15:17,083
a big contribution to

308
00:15:17,167 --> 00:15:19,127
what was known in
radio astronomy.

309
00:15:22,630 --> 00:15:25,050
- You guys want to
go down to the scope?

310
00:15:24,716 --> 00:15:26,092
- [Deana] Yeah, we going up?

311
00:15:25,842 --> 00:15:27,552
- Yeah, you want to.

312
00:15:27,635 --> 00:15:29,721
- I guess.

313
00:15:28,845 --> 00:15:32,098
I've got the right shoes.
- [Michael Holstine]
Your shoes are all right?

314
00:15:32,182 --> 00:15:36,478
Y'all can all ride in
the back. (chuckles)

315
00:15:36,561 --> 00:15:39,898
(truck engine revving)

316
00:15:39,981 --> 00:15:42,525
(gentle music)

317
00:15:52,369 --> 00:15:54,371
- [Woman 2]
Why do we search for E.T.?

318
00:15:55,830 --> 00:15:58,249
Ever since the beginning
of human history

319
00:15:57,665 --> 00:16:02,379
we've always looked out
to what's out there.

320
00:16:07,884 --> 00:16:12,722
- [Michael Holstine]
The Green Bank Observatory
is important to this area.

321
00:16:12,806 --> 00:16:14,474
It's one of the premier
science facilities

322
00:16:14,557 --> 00:16:16,267
in the state of West Virginia.

323
00:16:17,018 --> 00:16:19,479
And as far as radio
astronomy goes,

324
00:16:18,812 --> 00:16:23,066
it's one of the premier
observatories in the world.

325
00:16:24,526 --> 00:16:25,985
You know, it's a treasure.

326
00:16:31,533 --> 00:16:34,828
- [Narrator] Nestled deep in
the hills of West Virginia,

327
00:16:34,911 --> 00:16:37,038
the Green Bank
Observatory is home

328
00:16:36,329 --> 00:16:41,251
to the world's largest, fully
steerable radio telescope.

329
00:16:40,792 --> 00:16:43,712
The site hosts eight
radio telescopes

330
00:16:43,795 --> 00:16:47,173
and more than 60 years
of scientific discovery.

331
00:16:48,299 --> 00:16:50,176
Like the Big Ear
telescope in Ohio,

332
00:16:49,634 --> 00:16:54,472
the Green Bank story
began in the late 1950s.

333
00:16:54,556 --> 00:16:57,767
America's interest in radio
astronomy was growing.

334
00:16:57,183 --> 00:17:00,103
The Green Bank site
was chosen for building

335
00:17:00,186 --> 00:17:03,648
the first National Radio
Astronomy Observatory

336
00:17:03,732 --> 00:17:05,233
in the United States.

337
00:17:06,151 --> 00:17:07,819
- [Karen O'Neil]
If you look back historically,

338
00:17:07,902 --> 00:17:10,321
coming out of World
War II in particular,

339
00:17:10,405 --> 00:17:13,074
there was a lot of
interest in radio waves

340
00:17:13,158 --> 00:17:16,369
and radio technology, and
of course the beginnings

341
00:17:16,036 --> 00:17:18,079
of radio astronomy got started.

342
00:17:18,163 --> 00:17:19,831
So people started
listening to the cosmos,

343
00:17:19,914 --> 00:17:21,499
listening to the sky.

344
00:17:21,583 --> 00:17:24,294
And if you move forward
up into the 1950s,

345
00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:26,838
late 1950s by then, you had,

346
00:17:26,921 --> 00:17:29,132
radio astronomy was
an actual science.

347
00:17:28,757 --> 00:17:30,467
There was places
around the world

348
00:17:30,550 --> 00:17:32,969
that were studying
radio astronomy.

349
00:17:33,053 --> 00:17:35,055
Certainly if you look
over to Europe and Asia,

350
00:17:35,138 --> 00:17:37,390
Russia was already
building significant

351
00:17:37,474 --> 00:17:39,059
radio telescopes at the time.

352
00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:40,435
The Netherlands was
already building

353
00:17:40,518 --> 00:17:42,270
significant radio telescopes.

354
00:17:41,728 --> 00:17:44,481
And other countries were
starting to look at it.

355
00:17:43,938 --> 00:17:47,567
Within this country,
although radio astronomy

356
00:17:47,025 --> 00:17:50,195
was acknowledged as
a field of science,

357
00:17:49,652 --> 00:17:54,199
there wasn't any
significant radio telescope

358
00:17:53,865 --> 00:17:55,825
that the astronomers could use.

359
00:17:55,909 --> 00:17:58,244
Instead there was a lot
of fantastic instruments,

360
00:17:57,702 --> 00:17:59,996
but kind of built in
people's backyards,

361
00:17:59,662 --> 00:18:02,248
built in people's laboratories.

362
00:18:01,623 --> 00:18:05,669
- So in 1956, they started
searching for a place

363
00:18:05,043 --> 00:18:10,548
to put this new National
Radio Astronomy Observatory.

364
00:18:11,007 --> 00:18:13,051
And there were a
lot of criteria.

365
00:18:12,467 --> 00:18:16,096
I mean, radio astronomy's
a very sensitive science.

366
00:18:16,179 --> 00:18:17,305
The signals are very weak.

367
00:18:17,389 --> 00:18:19,516
So you had to look for a place

368
00:18:19,140 --> 00:18:21,601
that didn't have
a lot of people.

369
00:18:21,267 --> 00:18:23,311
You know, people are noisy.

370
00:18:23,395 --> 00:18:26,064
And they build things
that are noisy.

371
00:18:26,147 --> 00:18:28,400
Especially in the
radio spectrum.

372
00:18:27,941 --> 00:18:31,361
So they wanted a
low population area.

373
00:18:30,819 --> 00:18:33,822
They wanted it to be
free of things like

374
00:18:33,905 --> 00:18:36,199
overhead high-tension
power lines,

375
00:18:36,282 --> 00:18:39,327
because those things
can create noise.

376
00:18:38,993 --> 00:18:42,831
And several other criteria that,

377
00:18:42,372 --> 00:18:45,834
scientific staff
sort of short listed

378
00:18:45,291 --> 00:18:49,421
to about 29 sites up
and down the east coast.

379
00:18:48,837 --> 00:18:52,465
And it turned out that
Green Bank, West Virginia

380
00:18:51,965 --> 00:18:56,469
was the ideal, or
most ideal, place.

381
00:18:55,885 --> 00:19:01,641
So in 1957 the Green
Bank site was dedicated

382
00:19:02,684 --> 00:19:04,310
and we started
building telescopes.

383
00:19:06,271 --> 00:19:08,356
- [Narrator] As
telescopes began to rise

384
00:19:07,772 --> 00:19:10,942
from the ground up, the
advantages of having

385
00:19:11,026 --> 00:19:13,319
a National Radio
Astronomy Observatory

386
00:19:13,403 --> 00:19:17,157
in rural West Virginia
quickly became apparent.

387
00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:20,493
Green Bank soon attracted
professional radio astronomers,

388
00:19:19,784 --> 00:19:24,080
including those interested
in a new subset of astronomy,

389
00:19:23,496 --> 00:19:27,542
the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence,

390
00:19:27,292 --> 00:19:30,170
also known as SETI.

391
00:19:29,586 --> 00:19:32,297
- The reason a lot of
astronomers came here

392
00:19:32,380 --> 00:19:34,799
in the early years of NRAO

393
00:19:35,175 --> 00:19:37,594
is, first of all
we were building

394
00:19:37,677 --> 00:19:40,680
the biggest and the best
instruments in the world.

395
00:19:40,764 --> 00:19:44,184
And we were pushing the
boundaries of what we knew

396
00:19:44,267 --> 00:19:46,186
radio telescope's
could accomplish

397
00:19:46,269 --> 00:19:49,147
and radio receivers
could accomplish.

398
00:19:48,521 --> 00:19:52,067
- [Karen O'Neil] One of the best
things that happened

399
00:19:51,358 --> 00:19:54,694
when the idea of a National
Radio Astronomy Observatory

400
00:19:54,361 --> 00:19:58,198
was first decided, was this idea

401
00:19:58,281 --> 00:20:00,075
of radio quiet zones.

402
00:19:59,741 --> 00:20:02,160
So now you have a piece of land

403
00:20:01,576 --> 00:20:04,746
that's beginning to build
a lot of radio telescopes

404
00:20:04,829 --> 00:20:07,457
and you have legal
guarantees around it

405
00:20:06,915 --> 00:20:09,250
that you're not gonna
see a lot of noise

406
00:20:08,917 --> 00:20:10,543
like you would anywhere else

407
00:20:10,627 --> 00:20:12,253
that might build
a radio telescope.

408
00:20:12,337 --> 00:20:14,089
As soon as you have
those two pieces,

409
00:20:13,588 --> 00:20:16,549
you have a very obvious
location to come

410
00:20:16,633 --> 00:20:19,386
if you want to go look for
weird signals, frankly.

411
00:20:18,968 --> 00:20:21,012
You don't want to
do that someplace

412
00:20:20,470 --> 00:20:22,472
where there might be
a lot of other noise

413
00:20:22,138 --> 00:20:24,099
you have to find it through.

414
00:20:23,848 --> 00:20:25,642
And so the existence

415
00:20:25,725 --> 00:20:27,310
of a National Radio
Astronomy Observatory

416
00:20:26,685 --> 00:20:31,106
combined with the radio
quiet zones around here

417
00:20:30,605 --> 00:20:32,565
made this a perfect
place for a lot

418
00:20:32,649 --> 00:20:34,150
of radio astronomers to come,

419
00:20:33,566 --> 00:20:35,652
including Frank Drake
and many of the other

420
00:20:35,110 --> 00:20:37,904
pioneers of radio
astronomy in this country.

421
00:20:38,947 --> 00:20:42,075
- [Narrator] Dr. Frank
Drake, a radio astronomer

422
00:20:42,158 --> 00:20:44,494
regarded as the
father of modern SETI,

423
00:20:44,577 --> 00:20:48,665
was a young staff astronomer
at Green Bank in 1960.

424
00:20:48,748 --> 00:20:52,210
He devised an experiment
using interstellar radio waves

425
00:20:51,376 --> 00:20:56,214
to search for signs
of intelligent life
on distant planets.

426
00:20:55,755 --> 00:21:00,135
Drake called his
experiment Project Ozma.

427
00:21:00,218 --> 00:21:04,014
Conducted with one of Green
Bank's 85-foot telescopes,

428
00:21:04,097 --> 00:21:06,057
it was the first modern search

429
00:21:06,141 --> 00:21:09,227
for extraterrestrial
intelligence.

430
00:21:09,310 --> 00:21:12,272
- It was an experiment to
literally go out and listen.

431
00:21:11,938 --> 00:21:14,691
Let's go see if we can find

432
00:21:14,065 --> 00:21:17,736
signals from another
intelligent life out there.

433
00:21:17,402 --> 00:21:19,988
So it's in this particular case,

434
00:21:20,071 --> 00:21:22,073
Project Ozma was
using radio waves,

435
00:21:21,489 --> 00:21:24,909
so the same type of
technology we use today

436
00:21:24,993 --> 00:21:26,703
with the Breakthrough
Listen project.

437
00:21:26,161 --> 00:21:29,247
Frank had to spend many,
many hours per star

438
00:21:28,705 --> 00:21:31,541
to just look, to get
the level of sensitivity

439
00:21:31,624 --> 00:21:34,210
he thought he would need
in order to see a signal.

440
00:21:34,294 --> 00:21:36,087
He pieced all that
together to just see

441
00:21:35,837 --> 00:21:37,630
for the first time ever,

442
00:21:37,297 --> 00:21:39,341
let's just go take a measurement

443
00:21:39,424 --> 00:21:42,260
in the very scientific
manner to see if we can see

444
00:21:42,344 --> 00:21:44,137
a signal from alien life.

445
00:21:44,220 --> 00:21:45,764
Obviously he didn't
see anything.

446
00:21:45,847 --> 00:21:47,182
If he did, this would
be a very different

447
00:21:47,265 --> 00:21:48,558
conversation we're having.

448
00:21:58,568 --> 00:22:00,779
- [Ellie White]
So this is the Drake Lounge,

449
00:22:00,862 --> 00:22:03,823
you can see it's furnished
1960s decor all the way.

450
00:22:03,281 --> 00:22:07,786
All the original
furnishings and decorations.

451
00:22:07,118 --> 00:22:11,414
So it looks basically exactly
as it did back in 1960

452
00:22:10,789 --> 00:22:13,333
when Frank Drake and all
his colleagues gathered here

453
00:22:12,665 --> 00:22:16,711
to discuss the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence.

454
00:22:16,044 --> 00:22:18,922
Frank Drake was not the
only famous scientist here,

455
00:22:18,588 --> 00:22:20,215
there were famous scientists

456
00:22:20,298 --> 00:22:22,300
from Carl Sagan to
Philip Morrison.

457
00:22:22,384 --> 00:22:24,636
So the fun thing we
always try and do

458
00:22:24,719 --> 00:22:27,222
is say, "Hey, which chair
did Carl Sagan sit in?"

459
00:22:27,305 --> 00:22:30,600
So it's sort of neat
history about this place.

460
00:22:33,019 --> 00:22:36,064
- [Narrator] In 1961,
following his experience

461
00:22:35,522 --> 00:22:38,942
with Project Ozma,
Frank Drake organized

462
00:22:39,025 --> 00:22:41,569
a meeting at Green Bank
to discuss the possibility

463
00:22:41,653 --> 00:22:45,031
of searching for intelligent
extraterrestrial life.

464
00:22:44,698 --> 00:22:46,741
In preparation for this meeting

465
00:22:46,825 --> 00:22:49,494
he created an equation
that laid the groundwork

466
00:22:48,785 --> 00:22:54,332
for a meaningful scientific
dialogue about finding E.T.

467
00:22:54,416 --> 00:22:57,335
It became known as
the Drake Equation.

468
00:22:57,961 --> 00:23:00,130
- [Ellie White] At that time
there were very few people
in the world

469
00:23:00,213 --> 00:23:01,506
who were interested
in the search

470
00:23:01,589 --> 00:23:03,174
for extraterrestrial
intelligence.

471
00:23:02,716 --> 00:23:04,884
So Frank Drake
being one of them,

472
00:23:04,968 --> 00:23:08,096
he started thinking about
what are all the factors

473
00:23:07,470 --> 00:23:11,433
that influence the
probability of life elsewhere.

474
00:23:10,890 --> 00:23:13,059
So he was starting
to think about things

475
00:23:12,475 --> 00:23:16,312
like star formation and
exoplanets per star,

476
00:23:16,396 --> 00:23:17,814
and things like that.

477
00:23:17,272 --> 00:23:20,233
So he thought, "Well,
this actually fits

478
00:23:19,899 --> 00:23:22,819
"into the form of an equation."

479
00:23:22,902 --> 00:23:24,696
- [Karen O'Neil] He just started
writing these factors down

480
00:23:24,779 --> 00:23:26,197
and saying, "This is
what it's gonna take."

481
00:23:25,739 --> 00:23:27,782
We have to know,
well we have to know

482
00:23:27,198 --> 00:23:29,868
a whole lot of things,
but we have to know about

483
00:23:29,409 --> 00:23:31,286
how many planets
are there out there

484
00:23:31,369 --> 00:23:33,079
in the universe, for example.

485
00:23:33,163 --> 00:23:35,373
Of those planets, how many
could actually sustain life?

486
00:23:34,789 --> 00:23:38,835
And you have to piece all
of these factors together

487
00:23:38,918 --> 00:23:40,503
and it makes an equation.

488
00:23:39,878 --> 00:23:43,381
An absolutely beautiful and
fairly timeless equation

489
00:23:43,048 --> 00:23:45,800
which is the Drake Equation.

490
00:23:45,258 --> 00:23:48,261
What's been amazing
about the Drake Equation

491
00:23:48,345 --> 00:23:50,138
is certainly you can
take a look at it now,

492
00:23:49,846 --> 00:23:51,806
many, many years later,

493
00:23:51,222 --> 00:23:54,517
it's really still the
equation that you need

494
00:23:54,267 --> 00:23:55,935
in order to look and say

495
00:23:55,435 --> 00:23:58,146
what is the probability
of finding this?

496
00:23:58,229 --> 00:24:02,275
- [Ellie White]
L is the lifetime of
a communicating civilization.

497
00:24:01,941 --> 00:24:04,110
We only have one example of such

498
00:24:03,526 --> 00:24:06,529
a communicating
civilization, and that's us.

499
00:24:07,572 --> 00:24:12,327
So people try and estimate
how long do you think

500
00:24:12,410 --> 00:24:14,496
a civilization like
ourselves would last.

501
00:24:14,579 --> 00:24:17,665
Would it last 50 years,
100 years, 500 years,

502
00:24:17,749 --> 00:24:20,543
a million years, you know
that sort of determines

503
00:24:20,627 --> 00:24:22,837
how many civilizations
you're going to detect.

504
00:24:22,337 --> 00:24:24,339
Because the longer
they're out there

505
00:24:24,005 --> 00:24:26,216
the longer they're communicating

506
00:24:26,299 --> 00:24:28,635
and the more likely it is that
you'll detect their signals.

507
00:24:28,718 --> 00:24:30,887
(gentle music)

508
00:24:30,970 --> 00:24:34,933
- [Michael Holstine] What Frank
did was consider a way

509
00:24:34,432 --> 00:24:39,771
to theorize the potential
for the existence

510
00:24:39,270 --> 00:24:43,566
of an extraterrestrial
civilization.

511
00:24:42,941 --> 00:24:46,444
A lot of his numbers, a
lot of his assumptions,

512
00:24:45,944 --> 00:24:48,488
we're sort of
proving were correct,

513
00:24:48,154 --> 00:24:50,949
or very close to being correct.

514
00:24:51,032 --> 00:24:54,703
So that narrows the
guesstimate factor

515
00:24:54,786 --> 00:24:59,249
down to a more
knowing true figure.

516
00:25:00,625 --> 00:25:04,212
You're still talking about
100,000 potential sites

517
00:25:04,295 --> 00:25:08,091
that you have to look
at in this huge galaxy.

518
00:25:08,174 --> 00:25:10,468
Still becomes a daunting task.

519
00:25:11,052 --> 00:25:15,181
- [Nichol Cunningham] SETI's
always been about good science.

520
00:25:15,265 --> 00:25:16,349
They have to make assumptions

521
00:25:16,016 --> 00:25:18,476
about what they're looking for.

522
00:25:17,851 --> 00:25:22,230
That's, you know, a really
difficult thing to do

523
00:25:21,688 --> 00:25:24,858
when you don't know
what you're looking for.

524
00:25:24,524 --> 00:25:27,193
They've always been trying to do

525
00:25:26,609 --> 00:25:30,196
the best science they
can with the equipment

526
00:25:29,654 --> 00:25:33,241
and telescopes and
things that they have.

527
00:25:36,244 --> 00:25:37,579
- [Karen O'Neil]
SETI is such an integral part

528
00:25:37,078 --> 00:25:39,998
of the history of
Green Bank Observatory

529
00:25:40,081 --> 00:25:42,834
that you can't come
here as an astronomer

530
00:25:42,292 --> 00:25:44,919
and spend any time
and not start hearing

531
00:25:45,003 --> 00:25:47,589
not just about what's happened
here on site with SETI,

532
00:25:47,047 --> 00:25:49,632
but also what's happened
just around the country

533
00:25:49,299 --> 00:25:51,217
and around the world with SETI.

534
00:25:50,633 --> 00:25:53,136
Including things like
the Big Ear telescope,

535
00:25:53,219 --> 00:25:54,888
Wow! signal, and
all of those types

536
00:25:54,554 --> 00:25:56,473
of studies that have been done.

537
00:25:57,182 --> 00:26:01,269
(lawn mower engine humming)

538
00:26:11,237 --> 00:26:14,949
- [Tom Burns] This would be
some of the radio equipment

539
00:26:15,033 --> 00:26:18,286
that they use to
modulate the data,

540
00:26:18,370 --> 00:26:20,205
to collect that data.

541
00:26:20,288 --> 00:26:24,167
With a radio, essentially
what we might call a radio,

542
00:26:23,667 --> 00:26:27,128
except that it monitors
many frequencies

543
00:26:26,711 --> 00:26:30,674
at the same time,
and just for fun,

544
00:26:30,757 --> 00:26:33,593
if you wanna modulate
some of that information

545
00:26:32,967 --> 00:26:36,346
and put it on a screen, you
can use an oscilloscope.

546
00:26:35,679 --> 00:26:39,516
That's why old science
fiction movies look so great,

547
00:26:39,599 --> 00:26:42,060
because they have those
oscilloscopes running.

548
00:26:43,436 --> 00:26:48,066
- [Narrator] From 1963
until the early 1970s,

549
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,111
Ohio State's Big Ear
telescope conducted a survey

550
00:26:51,194 --> 00:26:54,698
that covered 70%
of the entire sky.

551
00:26:54,155 --> 00:26:57,992
Their comprehensive
Ohio All Sky Survey

552
00:26:57,492 --> 00:27:00,495
produced detailed
maps of the radio sky

553
00:27:00,578 --> 00:27:03,998
that proved useful
to astronomers
throughout the world.

554
00:27:04,541 --> 00:27:08,128
But by 1972, budget
shortages forced

555
00:27:07,794 --> 00:27:10,130
the National Science Foundation

556
00:27:09,671 --> 00:27:12,340
to terminate funding
for the Big Ear.

557
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,302
That decision closed one
highly successful chapter

558
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:19,723
in the Big Ear's history,
and began another.

559
00:27:20,724 --> 00:27:23,059
- [Robert Gray] In the early 70s
they ran out of money.

560
00:27:23,143 --> 00:27:27,647
The National Science Foundation
stopped funding them.

561
00:27:29,357 --> 00:27:32,944
New areas of astronomy and new
telescopes were being built

562
00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:36,823
and that's when Bob Dixon
put in a new receiver,

563
00:27:36,281 --> 00:27:39,451
better suited to finding
the narrow band signals

564
00:27:38,950 --> 00:27:42,245
that people think
might be out there

565
00:27:43,371 --> 00:27:46,458
if other civilizations
are broadcasting at us.

566
00:27:47,667 --> 00:27:51,087
- [Narrator] In 1971,
Bob Dixon attended

567
00:27:50,545 --> 00:27:54,049
a large gathering of
scientists and engineers

568
00:27:53,298 --> 00:27:58,136
at NASA's Ames Research Center
in Mountain View, California.

569
00:27:57,552 --> 00:28:00,555
The group shared ideas
about the possibility

570
00:28:00,638 --> 00:28:04,893
of detecting signals from
extraterrestrial civilizations.

571
00:28:04,976 --> 00:28:06,311
Their findings were published

572
00:28:05,810 --> 00:28:09,564
in a report titled
"Project Cyclops".

573
00:28:08,897 --> 00:28:12,567
The goal of Cyclops was to
assess what it would take

574
00:28:12,650 --> 00:28:15,195
to mount a large search
for radio signals

575
00:28:14,861 --> 00:28:18,073
from interstellar civilizations.

576
00:28:18,156 --> 00:28:20,116
Widely circulated by NASA,

577
00:28:19,574 --> 00:28:23,203
the final Cyclops report
strongly influenced

578
00:28:23,286 --> 00:28:25,205
the development
of a SETI program

579
00:28:24,746 --> 00:28:27,791
at the Big Ear
Radio Observatory.

580
00:28:28,708 --> 00:28:31,294
- [Robert Dixon] I became very
interested in SETI at the time.

581
00:28:32,587 --> 00:28:36,174
Finding for the radio
observatory nationally was lost.

582
00:28:36,257 --> 00:28:39,678
We realized we have a
wonderful radio telescope here,

583
00:28:39,761 --> 00:28:42,138
and this would be a wonderful
purpose to put it toward

584
00:28:42,222 --> 00:28:44,599
as the first large
telescope dedicated

585
00:28:44,683 --> 00:28:47,394
to searching for
extraterrestrial life.

586
00:28:46,851 --> 00:28:49,479
We have a perfectly
good staff of people

587
00:28:49,562 --> 00:28:51,022
who would be willing
to volunteer,

588
00:28:50,647 --> 00:28:53,149
and we attracted
more volunteers.

589
00:28:52,816 --> 00:28:55,151
- I was actually a volunteer

590
00:28:55,235 --> 00:28:58,196
at the Ohio State University
radio observatory.

591
00:28:58,279 --> 00:29:01,324
My job was as a
radio astronomer.

592
00:29:01,408 --> 00:29:05,120
Specifically looking at
the computer printouts

593
00:29:05,203 --> 00:29:07,664
from the radio telescope.

594
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:10,000
- So we had the equipment
and we had the people.

595
00:29:09,666 --> 00:29:11,960
And we reconfigured some things

596
00:29:11,668 --> 00:29:14,170
and we put it together.

597
00:29:13,837 --> 00:29:15,505
And we started that search.

598
00:29:16,047 --> 00:29:18,466
- [Narrator] Unlike
the All Sky Survey,

599
00:29:17,924 --> 00:29:21,011
which had utilized
wide band radio waves

600
00:29:21,094 --> 00:29:23,388
to search for naturally
occurring signals,

601
00:29:23,013 --> 00:29:25,849
the Big Ear SETI
program demanded

602
00:29:25,932 --> 00:29:28,351
a much more narrow focus.

603
00:29:28,435 --> 00:29:30,854
- Natural signals,
they sound the same

604
00:29:30,395 --> 00:29:32,689
no matter where you
tune your radio.

605
00:29:32,772 --> 00:29:34,482
If you had like your AM radio,

606
00:29:34,566 --> 00:29:37,068
it would sound the same
hissing sound no matter what.

607
00:29:37,152 --> 00:29:40,447
On the other hand, an
intelligent signal, we believe,

608
00:29:39,863 --> 00:29:43,283
would be tuned in only
at one point on the dial.

609
00:29:42,574 --> 00:29:46,411
And that's what we're looking
for, a narrow band signal.

610
00:29:45,910 --> 00:29:48,163
Narrow band signals
are artificial.

611
00:29:47,620 --> 00:29:49,789
There are not very
many things in nature

612
00:29:49,873 --> 00:29:51,499
that make narrow band signals.

613
00:29:52,834 --> 00:29:54,669
- [Narrator] The
Big Ear SETI program

614
00:29:54,377 --> 00:29:58,131
began in December 1973.

615
00:29:58,214 --> 00:30:01,593
With no external funding
and a volunteer staff,

616
00:30:01,009 --> 00:30:05,305
the program and equipment
were set up to operate

617
00:30:04,971 --> 00:30:07,891
with as few people as possible.

618
00:30:07,974 --> 00:30:10,685
In just a few years,
the Big Ear would make

619
00:30:10,769 --> 00:30:12,896
one of the most
intriguing discoveries

620
00:30:12,228 --> 00:30:16,858
in the search for intelligent
extraterrestrial life.

621
00:30:16,941 --> 00:30:19,903
A signal that
continues to fascinate.

622
00:30:20,653 --> 00:30:24,157
(suspenseful music)

623
00:30:41,132 --> 00:30:44,052
(static crackling)

624
00:30:48,973 --> 00:30:51,976
(printer clicking)

625
00:30:59,025 --> 00:31:03,071
(suspenseful music)

626
00:31:03,154 --> 00:31:05,990
- [Robert Gray]
From what I've been told,

627
00:31:06,074 --> 00:31:09,160
the Wow! signal was a
signal that came in,

628
00:31:09,244 --> 00:31:12,247
lasted for 72 seconds.

629
00:31:11,579 --> 00:31:17,419
And it looks to me like a
radio source, like a real one.

630
00:31:19,838 --> 00:31:23,341
- [Narrator] On the evening
of August 15th, 1977,

631
00:31:23,425 --> 00:31:25,260
the Big Ear
telescope was engaged

632
00:31:25,010 --> 00:31:27,470
in its on-going mission,

633
00:31:27,554 --> 00:31:30,348
the search for narrow
band radio signals.

634
00:31:31,808 --> 00:31:35,145
With its flat reflector set
at a predetermined angle,

635
00:31:35,228 --> 00:31:37,981
the Big Ear's beam
rotated with the Earth,

636
00:31:37,272 --> 00:31:42,193
patiently scanning a continuous
strip of the night sky.

637
00:31:42,277 --> 00:31:44,237
Incoming radio waves
were automatically

638
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,114
processed by computer.

639
00:31:46,197 --> 00:31:49,242
Computer printouts provided
a chronological record

640
00:31:48,700 --> 00:31:52,829
of the alphanumeric
date for later analysis.

641
00:31:52,912 --> 00:31:56,791
- [Jerry Ehman] When we set up
the receivers and the computers,

642
00:31:56,875 --> 00:32:00,253
we did it with a purpose
of not having to have

643
00:31:59,794 --> 00:32:03,840
a large group of
people maneuver data

644
00:32:03,923 --> 00:32:05,550
and do various things,

645
00:32:05,633 --> 00:32:10,305
because that was time
consuming, costly, and so forth.

646
00:32:10,388 --> 00:32:14,309
We built everything into the
receiver and the computer

647
00:32:14,392 --> 00:32:16,978
to do things on their own.

648
00:32:17,312 --> 00:32:21,149
- [Robert Dixon] We had, at that
time, a 50 channel receiver.

649
00:32:21,232 --> 00:32:23,234
So we have 50
different receivers.

650
00:32:23,318 --> 00:32:26,237
You can imagine having 50
radios sitting on your counter,

651
00:32:25,612 --> 00:32:29,282
each one tuned to a slightly
different frequency.

652
00:32:29,366 --> 00:32:30,950
And the output of all those 50

653
00:32:30,325 --> 00:32:33,411
was going into the computer
we had at the time.

654
00:32:33,495 --> 00:32:36,081
And we had written programs
to record, carefully,

655
00:32:36,164 --> 00:32:38,124
each of those 50 signals.

656
00:32:38,208 --> 00:32:39,793
And the intensity
of each of those

657
00:32:39,250 --> 00:32:42,420
was then printed out
on a sheet of paper.

658
00:32:42,504 --> 00:32:45,215
Channels one through 50
running across the paper.

659
00:32:46,758 --> 00:32:49,386
- [Narrator] Shortly
after 11 p.m., the Big Ear

660
00:32:48,843 --> 00:32:51,930
registered a signal
many times stronger

661
00:32:52,013 --> 00:32:54,766
than the normal
levels of radio noise.

662
00:32:54,140 --> 00:32:59,104
The signal lasted for 72
seconds, rising and falling

663
00:32:58,561 --> 00:33:02,107
as it passed through
the Big Ear's beam.

664
00:33:01,564 --> 00:33:04,567
No one was present
to witness the event,

665
00:33:04,234 --> 00:33:06,277
but the computer system recorded

666
00:33:06,361 --> 00:33:08,988
the sudden escalation
in signal strength.

667
00:33:08,488 --> 00:33:10,865
And the data printout
clearly showed

668
00:33:10,949 --> 00:33:13,243
the tremendous
spike in intensity.

669
00:33:14,244 --> 00:33:17,580
The moment passed,
and Big Ear continued

670
00:33:17,664 --> 00:33:19,916
scanning the sky
throughout the night.

671
00:33:21,376 --> 00:33:23,962
- There's nobody there,
typically, to look at it.

672
00:33:23,503 --> 00:33:26,089
And then at that
time, the computer,

673
00:33:25,755 --> 00:33:27,382
after it printed everything out,

674
00:33:27,465 --> 00:33:28,883
would be taken off
to Jerry's house

675
00:33:28,341 --> 00:33:30,427
and he'd look at it,
and he'd look through it

676
00:33:30,093 --> 00:33:32,262
and see what he could find.

677
00:33:31,553 --> 00:33:35,932
- [Jerry Ehman] Computer records
were delivered to my home every,

678
00:33:36,016 --> 00:33:37,809
oh about two times a week.

679
00:33:37,475 --> 00:33:39,436
A printout that contained three

680
00:33:39,519 --> 00:33:41,813
or four days worth
of observations.

681
00:33:42,647 --> 00:33:44,858
- [Tom Burns] What you get
when you're looking at data

682
00:33:44,315 --> 00:33:48,361
from a radio telescope
is just a big ream

683
00:33:48,028 --> 00:33:50,780
of paper with numbers on it

684
00:33:50,864 --> 00:33:55,952
representing what the signals
were at various frequencies.

685
00:33:56,077 --> 00:34:00,081
- [Jerry Ehman] When I would get
home from teaching,

686
00:34:00,165 --> 00:34:02,167
or at night after supper,

687
00:34:01,583 --> 00:34:05,295
I would sit down with
the computer printout

688
00:34:04,711 --> 00:34:08,465
and start to look for
anything interesting.

689
00:34:10,175 --> 00:34:14,137
The data that included
August 15, 1977,

690
00:34:13,803 --> 00:34:17,223
and two or three days past that.

691
00:34:17,307 --> 00:34:20,143
Just a few pages into that

692
00:34:20,226 --> 00:34:23,480
I saw the pattern 6EQUJ5.

693
00:34:24,397 --> 00:34:28,693
And I saw, okay the
numbers are increasing,

694
00:34:28,777 --> 00:34:30,987
hitting a peak, and
then dropping off.

695
00:34:31,071 --> 00:34:32,572
That's exactly what we expect

696
00:34:32,238 --> 00:34:34,532
for a strong narrow band signal.

697
00:34:35,408 --> 00:34:38,787
- [Narrator] Since
its discovery, there
has been a popular

698
00:34:38,119 --> 00:34:42,207
notion that the Wow! signal
can somehow be decoded.

699
00:34:42,290 --> 00:34:44,042
That its alphanumeric sequence

700
00:34:43,500 --> 00:34:47,212
harbors some hidden
meaning or message.

701
00:34:46,670 --> 00:34:49,839
In truth, the use of
numbers and letters

702
00:34:49,923 --> 00:34:53,051
was a practical method for
describing the intensity

703
00:34:52,592 --> 00:34:56,054
of radio signals
observed by the Big Ear.

704
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:58,598
The computer printouts generated

705
00:34:58,682 --> 00:35:01,184
by the Big Ear
featured 50 columns,

706
00:35:01,267 --> 00:35:04,104
one for every channel
being monitored.

707
00:35:03,561 --> 00:35:07,065
Each column had room
for a single digit.

708
00:35:07,148 --> 00:35:10,360
Low intensity signals
were assigned a one.

709
00:35:09,776 --> 00:35:14,280
Stronger signals were
assigned a higher number.

710
00:35:13,738 --> 00:35:16,199
Because the printout
columns were limited

711
00:35:16,282 --> 00:35:19,577
to single digits, signals
stronger than a nine

712
00:35:19,661 --> 00:35:21,496
were assigned a letter value.

713
00:35:21,579 --> 00:35:26,418
A 10 became A, 11,
became B, and so on.

714
00:35:26,501 --> 00:35:28,920
This simple method
clearly demonstrated

715
00:35:28,545 --> 00:35:31,089
the intensity of
the Wow! signal.

716
00:35:31,172 --> 00:35:33,174
In purely numerical terms,

717
00:35:32,674 --> 00:35:36,136
the Wow! signal
was 30 times higher

718
00:35:35,552 --> 00:35:39,139
than the lowest levels
of random radio noise.

719
00:35:39,556 --> 00:35:41,933
- We were trying to
think of how could this

720
00:35:41,683 --> 00:35:44,227
be a fluke of some kind?

721
00:35:44,310 --> 00:35:46,312
It's the biggest
thing we ever saw.

722
00:35:46,396 --> 00:35:48,815
- [Jerry Ehman]
Within 10 seconds or less,

723
00:35:48,314 --> 00:35:52,027
with my red pen I
circled the 6EQUJ5

724
00:35:52,110 --> 00:35:55,905
and wrote the word
wow, exclamation point.

725
00:35:57,657 --> 00:36:00,410
And it's fortunate, I got to
thinking about this later,

726
00:36:00,493 --> 00:36:03,496
that wow is kind of
like an expletive,

727
00:36:03,580 --> 00:36:07,250
but a good expletive and so
it didn't have to be deleted.

728
00:36:09,044 --> 00:36:11,212
- [Robert Gray] In searching
for E.T., the Wow! signal

729
00:36:10,628 --> 00:36:14,716
is the best candidate
that's ever been seen.

730
00:36:16,134 --> 00:36:18,219
- [Seth Shostak] The thing about
the Wow! signal is that it had

731
00:36:18,303 --> 00:36:20,597
the characteristic shape,

732
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:23,350
the change of
intensity with time,

733
00:36:23,433 --> 00:36:24,893
followed what you would expect

734
00:36:24,976 --> 00:36:26,895
from some transmitter
that's up there

735
00:36:26,978 --> 00:36:28,772
in the sky moving
with the stars.

736
00:36:28,396 --> 00:36:30,774
That's what made
it so appealing,

737
00:36:30,857 --> 00:36:32,150
so different from the kind of

738
00:36:32,233 --> 00:36:34,110
normal interference
that you get.

739
00:36:35,904 --> 00:36:38,323
- [Narrator] Amazed by the
Wow! signal's intensity,

740
00:36:38,406 --> 00:36:41,493
Jerry Ehman continued reviewing
the computer printouts

741
00:36:41,576 --> 00:36:43,870
from the night of August 15th,

742
00:36:43,536 --> 00:36:46,247
and the days immediately after.

743
00:36:46,331 --> 00:36:47,874
He was searching for evidence

744
00:36:47,957 --> 00:36:51,211
that the incredibly strong
signal had repeated.

745
00:36:51,294 --> 00:36:53,171
- [Jerry Ehman] I was especially
interested to see

746
00:36:53,254 --> 00:36:56,091
if that same signal
came back a day later,

747
00:36:56,174 --> 00:36:59,052
which would mean in the
same position in the sky.

748
00:36:59,844 --> 00:37:01,554
It didn't.

749
00:37:01,638 --> 00:37:05,850
It didn't appear on the
third or fourth days, either.

750
00:37:07,227 --> 00:37:10,188
After I got through looking
at all the printouts,

751
00:37:10,271 --> 00:37:12,148
I called Dr. John
Kraus and said,

752
00:37:12,232 --> 00:37:14,442
"We've got something
interesting here."

753
00:37:16,194 --> 00:37:19,280
- [Narrator] The Wow! signal
presented many questions.

754
00:37:20,323 --> 00:37:22,450
Was it a natural
celestial phenomenon?

755
00:37:23,034 --> 00:37:25,286
Could it have been
a man-made signal

756
00:37:25,370 --> 00:37:27,080
from a passing satellite?

757
00:37:27,455 --> 00:37:30,583
Was it an artificial
signal from an intelligent,

758
00:37:30,667 --> 00:37:32,919
extraterrestrial civilization?

759
00:37:34,379 --> 00:37:38,008
John Kraus, director of the
Ohio State Radio Observatory,

760
00:37:38,091 --> 00:37:40,343
and his assistant
director, Bob Dixon,

761
00:37:40,010 --> 00:37:42,804
immediately began to investigate

762
00:37:42,470 --> 00:37:45,765
and eliminate the possibilities.

763
00:37:45,849 --> 00:37:47,642
- [Robert Dixon]
This is the scientific method.

764
00:37:47,142 --> 00:37:50,020
To discover something
extraordinary

765
00:37:50,103 --> 00:37:51,771
you need extraordinary proof.

766
00:37:51,104 --> 00:37:53,898
And so we wanted to eliminate
everything else we could.

767
00:37:53,314 --> 00:37:57,068
And now interference
is the common situation

768
00:37:56,776 --> 00:37:58,403
with radio astronomers.

769
00:37:58,778 --> 00:38:00,905
But we have interference
all the time

770
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:02,657
to the radio telescope,
but we know what it is,

771
00:38:02,741 --> 00:38:05,410
we recognize it, we've
done it for so long.

772
00:38:05,076 --> 00:38:07,370
We recognize it for what it is.

773
00:38:07,454 --> 00:38:10,123
And the characteristics
of local interference,

774
00:38:09,497 --> 00:38:13,376
say coming from the Earth,
is totally different.

775
00:38:13,043 --> 00:38:15,545
Interference pulses on and off,

776
00:38:15,628 --> 00:38:18,089
it'll look like little
static jumping up and down.

777
00:38:18,173 --> 00:38:19,758
Never does it follow the curve

778
00:38:19,299 --> 00:38:21,509
of the radio
telescope like that.

779
00:38:20,842 --> 00:38:23,928
Because what that means is
the telescope was scanning

780
00:38:23,595 --> 00:38:25,680
across that area in the sky

781
00:38:25,013 --> 00:38:28,558
and it went across whatever
was sending that signal

782
00:38:28,641 --> 00:38:30,101
and it went back down.

783
00:38:30,185 --> 00:38:32,312
It followed exactly
the theoretical curve

784
00:38:32,395 --> 00:38:34,189
that it should
follow for the shape

785
00:38:33,688 --> 00:38:36,191
of the antenna pattern
of the telescope.

786
00:38:35,648 --> 00:38:38,735
That's another astounding
piece of evidence.

787
00:38:39,110 --> 00:38:42,989
- [Jerry Ehman] Dr. Kraus did
the bulk of the investigation

788
00:38:42,697 --> 00:38:45,241
as to what it could be.

789
00:38:45,325 --> 00:38:50,205
He looked at stars,
galaxies, planets,

790
00:38:50,288 --> 00:38:52,999
satellites, and anything else

791
00:38:52,665 --> 00:38:55,293
that could have sent the signal.

792
00:38:55,377 --> 00:38:57,796
And didn't find anything.

793
00:38:58,046 --> 00:39:00,507
- [Robert Dixon]
Is it equipment malfunction?

794
00:39:00,590 --> 00:39:02,258
No, we ruled that out.

795
00:39:02,342 --> 00:39:05,929
Is it some planet or
star or something, no.

796
00:39:07,055 --> 00:39:08,390
I mean, one could
say it might be

797
00:39:07,889 --> 00:39:09,891
an Earth satellite
of some kind, but,

798
00:39:10,767 --> 00:39:12,352
the strikes are against that.

799
00:39:11,726 --> 00:39:15,105
Because we're using a
frequency that's protected

800
00:39:14,646 --> 00:39:17,440
internationally for
any transmitter.

801
00:39:17,524 --> 00:39:19,067
Nobody's allowed
to transmit there,

802
00:39:19,150 --> 00:39:21,695
it's reserved for
scientific research.

803
00:39:21,111 --> 00:39:23,613
So for a satellite to
be transmitting there

804
00:39:23,113 --> 00:39:25,699
they'd have to be
disobeying that rule.

805
00:39:25,782 --> 00:39:27,826
But the fact is, if
it's a satellite,

806
00:39:27,492 --> 00:39:29,619
it has to be moving in the sky.

807
00:39:30,370 --> 00:39:33,164
It would have to be moving
at exactly the right rate,

808
00:39:32,622 --> 00:39:35,041
and that's just really
not very practical

809
00:39:34,791 --> 00:39:36,209
to think about that.

810
00:39:37,377 --> 00:39:38,962
Is it a hoax?

811
00:39:38,545 --> 00:39:41,339
Well, Jerry and I
are the only ones

812
00:39:41,006 --> 00:39:42,966
that could have pulled this hoax

813
00:39:43,049 --> 00:39:44,718
by fiddling around with
the computer program,

814
00:39:44,801 --> 00:39:46,052
and I know I didn't do it,

815
00:39:45,593 --> 00:39:47,429
and I'm pretty
sure he didn't do.

816
00:39:48,221 --> 00:39:50,265
So we knew that it was there.

817
00:39:51,224 --> 00:39:53,309
- [Narrator] The Big
Ear continued to search

818
00:39:53,393 --> 00:39:56,021
the same section
of sky for 30 days

819
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:58,356
following the Wow!
signal discovery.

820
00:39:57,856 --> 00:40:01,276
Eventually, it
scanned the area again

821
00:40:01,359 --> 00:40:03,570
for 70 more days.

822
00:40:03,236 --> 00:40:06,072
The signal never reappeared.

823
00:40:06,031 --> 00:40:09,159
- [Robert Dixon] And what was
even more puzzling is,

824
00:40:09,242 --> 00:40:12,078
we actually had two beams
in the sky at the time.

825
00:40:12,162 --> 00:40:14,789
Slightly, a few minutes
apart from each other.

826
00:40:14,247 --> 00:40:17,625
And when it went through
one beam, we saw it,

827
00:40:17,709 --> 00:40:20,462
and it went through the
other beam, we didn't see it.

828
00:40:19,919 --> 00:40:23,340
So that means that
the signal turned off

829
00:40:24,174 --> 00:40:25,300
at the time we
we're looking at it,

830
00:40:25,383 --> 00:40:27,218
and that's even more exciting.

831
00:40:26,634 --> 00:40:29,596
Because no natural signal
would have done that.

832
00:40:31,723 --> 00:40:33,850
- [Narrator] The Big
Ear design featured

833
00:40:33,266 --> 00:40:36,686
two large feed horns,
situated side-by-side

834
00:40:36,770 --> 00:40:40,231
near one end of the telescope's
aluminum ground plane.

835
00:40:39,564 --> 00:40:43,401
The dual horns acted as
funnels for the radio waves

836
00:40:42,942 --> 00:40:46,071
bouncing off the
parabolic reflector.

837
00:40:45,528 --> 00:40:48,531
Essentially giving
the Big Ear two beams

838
00:40:48,615 --> 00:40:51,242
for observing and
capturing data.

839
00:40:50,909 --> 00:40:53,328
After passing through one beam,

840
00:40:53,411 --> 00:40:56,164
a radio wave would be
picked up in the second beam

841
00:40:55,914 --> 00:40:57,999
a few minutes later.

842
00:40:58,083 --> 00:41:01,336
The Wow! signal's failure
to appear in the second beam

843
00:41:01,419 --> 00:41:03,171
did cause excitement.

844
00:41:03,254 --> 00:41:05,298
It also caused ambiguity.

845
00:41:06,424 --> 00:41:08,927
- If we were to pick up
the Wow! signal today,

846
00:41:09,010 --> 00:41:11,763
you would be able to, at least
with some SETI experiments,

847
00:41:11,846 --> 00:41:14,849
you would be able to follow
up right away, right away.

848
00:41:14,224 --> 00:41:16,810
You would immediately
start looking at it again.

849
00:41:16,059 --> 00:41:20,146
Now, you could say, "Yes, but
they did that at Ohio State."

850
00:41:19,479 --> 00:41:23,274
They did, they followed up
with one more observation.

851
00:41:23,358 --> 00:41:25,151
That was an automatic feature

852
00:41:24,818 --> 00:41:26,695
of the antenna they were using.

853
00:41:26,778 --> 00:41:28,655
So two minutes after
they find Wow! signal

854
00:41:28,154 --> 00:41:31,241
they looked at it
again, and that's it.

855
00:41:31,324 --> 00:41:33,368
But of course, today you
would keep looking at it,

856
00:41:33,451 --> 00:41:34,994
keep looking at it,
keep looking at it

857
00:41:34,452 --> 00:41:38,039
for minutes and minutes
and minutes and minutes,

858
00:41:37,539 --> 00:41:39,416
and if you didn't
find it you would say

859
00:41:39,082 --> 00:41:41,001
it's probably interference.

860
00:41:42,168 --> 00:41:44,212
- [Narrator] In the years
since its discovery,

861
00:41:43,670 --> 00:41:47,298
the Wow! signal has been
recognized worldwide

862
00:41:46,715 --> 00:41:51,094
as a significant event
in the search for E.T.

863
00:41:51,177 --> 00:41:54,180
Many still believe it's
the best evidence to date

864
00:41:54,264 --> 00:41:56,182
of a communication
from an intelligent

865
00:41:55,932 --> 00:41:58,518
extraterrestrial source.

866
00:41:57,976 --> 00:42:01,771
Others question its
scientific validity.

867
00:42:02,564 --> 00:42:05,525
- [Seth Shostak] The Wow!
signal certainly was
a strong signal, right,

868
00:42:05,608 --> 00:42:08,194
there was no doubt about
a signal being there.

869
00:42:07,944 --> 00:42:09,571
That's the not question.

870
00:42:09,654 --> 00:42:11,156
The question isn't
was there a signal,

871
00:42:10,572 --> 00:42:12,615
the question is where did
that signal come from?

872
00:42:12,115 --> 00:42:15,035
Did it really come
from outer space?

873
00:42:15,118 --> 00:42:16,327
Did it come from
something artificial?

874
00:42:16,411 --> 00:42:18,163
Did it come from
something natural?

875
00:42:17,829 --> 00:42:19,330
Did it come from the Earth?

876
00:42:18,997 --> 00:42:21,332
And of course nobody knows.

877
00:42:21,583 --> 00:42:24,377
- [Scott Gaudi]
It remains unexplained.

878
00:42:24,461 --> 00:42:27,380
It was a highly
significant signal

879
00:42:26,796 --> 00:42:31,509
that was unexpected and
difficult to explain

880
00:42:30,884 --> 00:42:35,096
by natural phenomenon,
but it was never repeated.

881
00:42:34,763 --> 00:42:37,223
It could never be verified.

882
00:42:37,307 --> 00:42:42,354
And so we're left, really
not knowing what caused it.

883
00:42:43,730 --> 00:42:45,148
You could imagine if an
extraterrestrial civilization

884
00:42:45,231 --> 00:42:47,442
was intentionally
trying to contact us

885
00:42:46,941 --> 00:42:49,194
they wouldn't just
send us one signal

886
00:42:48,693 --> 00:42:51,613
and then leave us
hanging for, you know,

887
00:42:51,029 --> 00:42:54,282
many years wondering
what that signal meant.

888
00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:57,786
(wind rushing)

889
00:43:09,381 --> 00:43:13,885
- [Robert Gray] This is a movie
of the galaxy M33.

890
00:43:13,968 --> 00:43:18,515
This came from the VLA
in January of this year.

891
00:43:18,598 --> 00:43:21,768
What I'm looking for
here is a big colored dot

892
00:43:21,518 --> 00:43:23,395
that's not always there,

893
00:43:23,478 --> 00:43:26,398
that's only at one radio
picture at one frequency.

894
00:43:26,481 --> 00:43:29,067
Which might be a radio signal

895
00:43:28,566 --> 00:43:32,320
pointed our way
from the galaxy M33.

896
00:43:32,821 --> 00:43:35,198
No one's ever looked
at this before.

897
00:43:35,281 --> 00:43:39,452
No one's ever seen this
little movie I'm playing.

898
00:43:40,829 --> 00:43:43,623
This is what I call the
small SETI radio telescope

899
00:43:43,289 --> 00:43:46,126
I built in the early 1980's.

900
00:43:45,417 --> 00:43:49,963
And this displays the direction
the antenna's pointing,

901
00:43:49,462 --> 00:43:53,091
and this actually
controls the antenna.

902
00:43:52,590 --> 00:43:57,012
So this 12-foot
dish that's feeding

903
00:43:56,678 --> 00:43:58,638
electrical signals into this

904
00:43:58,263 --> 00:44:02,100
is being pointed
around by a 1944

905
00:44:01,766 --> 00:44:06,104
surplus military radar pedestal.

906
00:44:05,395 --> 00:44:08,356
- [Interviewer] Where's the
dish that you use with this?

907
00:44:08,023 --> 00:44:10,650
- Well, the dish is outside.

908
00:44:10,734 --> 00:44:13,028
Watch your step a little bit.

909
00:44:16,906 --> 00:44:19,451
(gentle music)

910
00:44:21,911 --> 00:44:25,832
[Robert Gray] I first heard
about the Ohio State Wow! signal

911
00:44:25,915 --> 00:44:30,211
when I read an article about
it in Cosmic Search magazine.

912
00:44:29,878 --> 00:44:32,839
A small radio astronomy magazine

913
00:44:32,922 --> 00:44:36,468
being published by John Kraus,
the founder and designer

914
00:44:36,551 --> 00:44:39,012
of the Ohio State
radio telescope.

915
00:44:40,138 --> 00:44:42,724
He wrote an article that
described this unusual

916
00:44:42,807 --> 00:44:47,103
and intriguing signal
they discovered in 1977.

917
00:44:48,063 --> 00:44:51,816
I was a data analyst,
a computer jockey,

918
00:44:51,524 --> 00:44:53,360
programmer at the time.

919
00:44:54,569 --> 00:44:57,280
This seemed so intriguing to me

920
00:44:56,780 --> 00:44:59,115
that I called the
people at Ohio State,

921
00:44:58,782 --> 00:45:01,409
called Bob Dixon I believe.

922
00:45:00,950 --> 00:45:04,746
Somewhat to my surprise,
he didn't reject

923
00:45:04,829 --> 00:45:07,707
when I suggested I'd
visit Columbus, Ohio,

924
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:12,671
then look at the radio
telescope and data personally.

925
00:45:13,129 --> 00:45:15,590
Everything I heard
about the Wow! signal

926
00:45:15,090 --> 00:45:18,134
seemed more and
more intriguing and,

927
00:45:18,218 --> 00:45:22,055
more and more likely to be
a real signal from the stars

928
00:45:23,348 --> 00:45:24,933
rather than interference.

929
00:45:25,642 --> 00:45:27,310
(suspenseful music)

930
00:45:27,394 --> 00:45:29,354
- [Narrator] Since
the early 1980s,

931
00:45:29,437 --> 00:45:33,149
Robert Gray has been
searching for the Wow! signal.

932
00:45:32,691 --> 00:45:36,111
Like Grote Reber
several decades earlier,

933
00:45:36,194 --> 00:45:40,115
Gray searched the sky using
his home brewed equipment

934
00:45:40,198 --> 00:45:43,410
and 12-foot dish antenna
stationed in his backyard.

935
00:45:44,077 --> 00:45:46,413
Along with writing
"The Elusive Wow",

936
00:45:46,496 --> 00:45:48,373
which chronicles his searches,

937
00:45:48,456 --> 00:45:50,500
Gray has hunted the
Wow! signal at the

938
00:45:50,583 --> 00:45:53,545
Harvard Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory

939
00:45:53,628 --> 00:45:56,589
in Massachusetts,
the Very Large Array

940
00:45:56,297 --> 00:45:58,967
in Socorro, New Mexico,

941
00:45:58,466 --> 00:46:01,177
and the Mount Pleasant
Radio Observatory

942
00:46:01,261 --> 00:46:03,263
at the University of Tasmania.

943
00:46:04,681 --> 00:46:08,351
- [Robert Gray] The Ohio State
Wow! signal was only seen once.

944
00:46:08,435 --> 00:46:13,064
It was present for six
10-second measurements,

945
00:46:12,731 --> 00:46:16,067
so it wasn't just a quick flash.

946
00:46:16,151 --> 00:46:21,072
But it wasn't seen
twice for 72 seconds

947
00:46:20,572 --> 00:46:24,659
like a constant celestial
source should be.

948
00:46:24,743 --> 00:46:28,079
This is a flaw in
the Wow! signal,

949
00:46:28,163 --> 00:46:29,873
that it was only
seen in one beam.

950
00:46:31,791 --> 00:46:33,918
- [Narrator] Some astronomers
believe the Wow! signal

951
00:46:34,002 --> 00:46:36,338
appeared in only one
of the Big Ear's beams

952
00:46:35,837 --> 00:46:38,840
because it was
man-made interference,

953
00:46:38,298 --> 00:46:42,302
or perhaps some sort
of natural anomaly.

954
00:46:42,385 --> 00:46:43,970
But an opposing
school of thought

955
00:46:44,054 --> 00:46:46,765
suggests another possibility.

956
00:46:46,848 --> 00:46:50,435
A radio signal
from an intelligent
extraterrestrial source

957
00:46:50,101 --> 00:46:52,771
might appear intermittently.

958
00:46:53,605 --> 00:46:55,940
- [Robert Gray] It's possible
that the Wow! signal

959
00:46:56,024 --> 00:46:58,068
didn't show up in
the second horn

960
00:46:57,525 --> 00:47:01,571
because it was some
kind of sweeping signal,

961
00:47:01,654 --> 00:47:04,866
like a cat's eye
beam of a transmitter

962
00:47:04,532 --> 00:47:06,701
that was sweeping across the sky

963
00:47:06,242 --> 00:47:09,329
and swept across
the Ohio State beam

964
00:47:09,996 --> 00:47:12,916
in merely a few minutes.

965
00:47:13,708 --> 00:47:16,711
Most people involved
in searching

966
00:47:16,252 --> 00:47:18,213
for extraterrestrial
intelligence

967
00:47:18,296 --> 00:47:21,091
have one of two
scenarios in mind.

968
00:47:21,174 --> 00:47:24,636
One, is a beacon that's
shining all the time,

969
00:47:23,927 --> 00:47:27,222
so anytime we happen to look
at a certain spot in the sky

970
00:47:26,554 --> 00:47:30,266
we'll see it, if we're tuned
to the right frequency.

971
00:47:29,766 --> 00:47:33,978
That's a terribly
expensive thing to do.

972
00:47:33,645 --> 00:47:36,272
The amount of power is way more

973
00:47:36,356 --> 00:47:38,441
than all the power
on Earth to operate

974
00:47:37,816 --> 00:47:41,861
a beacon that shines in all
directions all the time.

975
00:47:41,945 --> 00:47:44,656
The other scenario
is a big antenna

976
00:47:44,155 --> 00:47:46,866
that points our
way every so often.

977
00:47:46,282 --> 00:47:51,121
A directed beam, and that
uses a lot less power.

978
00:47:51,204 --> 00:47:55,083
That's the reason why big
radio telescopes are so big

979
00:47:55,166 --> 00:47:58,003
is that they see a
smaller spot in the sky.

980
00:47:58,086 --> 00:48:00,213
And for a transmitter
that means that they're

981
00:47:59,546 --> 00:48:03,508
only shooting the power towards
a small spot in the sky,

982
00:48:03,174 --> 00:48:05,510
so you'd need a lot less power.

983
00:48:04,884 --> 00:48:08,930
The drawback to a directed
antenna pointing at us

984
00:48:09,014 --> 00:48:12,350
is it's probably not gonna be
pointing at us all the time.

985
00:48:12,434 --> 00:48:14,686
That's another
possible explanation

986
00:48:14,769 --> 00:48:18,148
for something like the Wow!
signal being intermittent.

987
00:48:19,524 --> 00:48:21,192
- [Narrator] Despite
his continued searches

988
00:48:20,608 --> 00:48:24,112
and long-term effort,
Gray has not been able

989
00:48:24,195 --> 00:48:26,364
to find the Wow! signal again.

990
00:48:27,240 --> 00:48:29,576
- As far as I can
tell, having talked

991
00:48:29,242 --> 00:48:31,411
to nearly everyone in the field,

992
00:48:31,911 --> 00:48:34,164
no one else has
ever looked for it.

993
00:48:35,373 --> 00:48:40,045
No one except for me has
tried to follow up on it.

994
00:48:40,587 --> 00:48:45,216
And my observations
are admittedly those

995
00:48:45,300 --> 00:48:48,887
of a non-professional
and might very well

996
00:48:48,636 --> 00:48:50,347
have had some flaws.

997
00:48:51,389 --> 00:48:53,933
The professional
astronomical community

998
00:48:53,350 --> 00:48:57,354
has never really looked
hard for this thing.

999
00:48:57,020 --> 00:48:58,980
It might be worth doing so.

1000
00:49:00,523 --> 00:49:06,196
(waves splashing)
(car engines rumbling)

1001
00:49:14,954 --> 00:49:17,457
- [Woman 3]
Times she has a happy--
- [Woman 4] Not that I heard.

1002
00:49:17,540 --> 00:49:19,084
- [Seth Shostak] People will ask
me at parties,

1003
00:49:19,167 --> 00:49:20,460
when they hear what
kind of work I do,

1004
00:49:20,126 --> 00:49:22,253
they say, "Well, are you close?"

1005
00:49:21,670 --> 00:49:24,297
I don't know what that
means, are you close.

1006
00:49:23,588 --> 00:49:27,133
Because until you've found a
signal that you can verify,

1007
00:49:26,508 --> 00:49:30,845
and that is clearly
extraterrestrial in origin,

1008
00:49:30,512 --> 00:49:33,181
you've not had any close calls,

1009
00:49:33,264 --> 00:49:34,599
you've not had any successes,

1010
00:49:34,683 --> 00:49:36,309
you've been looking,
looking, looking.

1011
00:49:36,393 --> 00:49:38,061
It's like, you know, Captain
Cook in the South Pacific

1012
00:49:37,811 --> 00:49:40,146
in the 1770s, right.

1013
00:49:40,230 --> 00:49:42,899
Every day he just sees
more water around the ship.

1014
00:49:42,982 --> 00:49:44,442
And so, "Well, are you close?"

1015
00:49:44,526 --> 00:49:47,195
Well, he doesn't know
whether he's close.

1016
00:49:46,403 --> 00:49:50,031
- [Narrator] As a
senior astronomer for
the SETI Institute,

1017
00:49:49,447 --> 00:49:53,201
Seth Shostak has been
an active participant

1018
00:49:52,617 --> 00:49:56,246
in the institute's SETI
observing programs.

1019
00:49:56,329 --> 00:49:58,331
He has written and
lectured extensively

1020
00:49:58,415 --> 00:50:01,584
about the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence,

1021
00:50:01,668 --> 00:50:03,753
including the Wow! signal.

1022
00:50:04,546 --> 00:50:07,465
- [Seth Shostak]
The Wow! signal, of course,
continues to intrigue people,

1023
00:50:07,549 --> 00:50:11,177
and maybe people think
that it's our best case

1024
00:50:10,593 --> 00:50:14,139
for a signal from
extraterrestrial intelligence.

1025
00:50:13,430 --> 00:50:17,851
I find that maybe a little
bit, I don't know, overstated.

1026
00:50:17,934 --> 00:50:19,477
To say it's our best case.

1027
00:50:19,561 --> 00:50:20,645
It's an intriguing case
'cause it's a mystery.

1028
00:50:20,729 --> 00:50:22,188
We don't know what it was.

1029
00:50:22,272 --> 00:50:25,275
But then again, if you
look back into that era,

1030
00:50:25,358 --> 00:50:27,610
in the late 1970s,
there were other

1031
00:50:27,235 --> 00:50:29,529
SETI experiments
running as well.

1032
00:50:28,820 --> 00:50:32,365
And they would come up with
mysterious signals, as well.

1033
00:50:32,449 --> 00:50:34,868
They would come up with signals
that were seen only once.

1034
00:50:34,951 --> 00:50:37,120
And that had the
hallmarks of the kind

1035
00:50:37,203 --> 00:50:39,122
of signal you're looking for.

1036
00:50:38,580 --> 00:50:42,292
But they didn't have the
great name, Wow! signal.

1037
00:50:41,750 --> 00:50:44,461
They were just sort
of anonymous signals

1038
00:50:44,544 --> 00:50:46,629
coming from a certain
spot on the sky.

1039
00:50:47,297 --> 00:50:49,299
I've written occasionally
about a signal

1040
00:50:48,757 --> 00:50:52,594
that we picked up in
1997, which was the,

1041
00:50:51,968 --> 00:50:55,430
to my mind, the most
interesting candidate signal

1042
00:50:55,138 --> 00:50:57,515
that we've ever gotten.

1043
00:50:56,681 --> 00:50:59,934
And for most of the
day it looked like
it was the real deal.

1044
00:50:59,601 --> 00:51:01,061
Turned out it wasn't, it was due

1045
00:51:01,144 --> 00:51:03,813
to a solar research satellite,

1046
00:51:03,355 --> 00:51:05,690
a European solar
research satellite.

1047
00:51:05,273 --> 00:51:07,275
SOHO was the name
of the satellite.

1048
00:51:06,691 --> 00:51:10,070
But for about 16 hours
or so we weren't sure,

1049
00:51:10,153 --> 00:51:11,738
we thought it might
be the real deal.

1050
00:51:11,112 --> 00:51:13,490
And that was actually a
very interesting event.

1051
00:51:12,906 --> 00:51:15,075
It was a good thing it
happened, in my mind,

1052
00:51:15,158 --> 00:51:16,701
because it showed
us what happens

1053
00:51:16,368 --> 00:51:18,328
if you actually pick up a signal

1054
00:51:17,994 --> 00:51:20,747
that is what you're looking for.

1055
00:51:21,247 --> 00:51:24,209
The Wow! signal may be
a case of the triumph

1056
00:51:24,292 --> 00:51:27,379
of branding over
product, perhaps.

1057
00:51:28,588 --> 00:51:31,257
- [Narrator] Whether it's
the best case of a signal

1058
00:51:31,341 --> 00:51:35,387
from E.T., or an unintentional
triumph of branding,

1059
00:51:35,470 --> 00:51:39,140
the Wow! signal may be the
most widely recognized event

1060
00:51:38,890 --> 00:51:40,892
in SETI's short history.

1061
00:51:41,559 --> 00:51:43,687
In the years since
the Wow! discovery

1062
00:51:43,353 --> 00:51:45,855
SETI experiments have continued,

1063
00:51:45,939 --> 00:51:48,942
benefiting greatly from
advancements in technology

1064
00:51:48,400 --> 00:51:51,820
and more sophisticated
search techniques.

1065
00:51:51,486 --> 00:51:54,072
Still, there are those who feel

1066
00:51:53,571 --> 00:51:56,408
we have barely
scratched the surface.

1067
00:51:56,533 --> 00:52:00,078
- [Robert Gray] It's hard
to describe how modest

1068
00:52:00,161 --> 00:52:02,872
our searches have been so far.

1069
00:52:02,956 --> 00:52:06,001
We've typically only
looked for a minute or two

1070
00:52:06,084 --> 00:52:09,254
in any one direction
and any one frequency.

1071
00:52:08,753 --> 00:52:11,589
It's entirely
possible that there's

1072
00:52:10,922 --> 00:52:16,302
beamed transmissions pointed
at us from other stars,

1073
00:52:15,760 --> 00:52:19,305
that if we happen to
point a big antenna

1074
00:52:19,014 --> 00:52:21,057
in the right direction,

1075
00:52:20,515 --> 00:52:24,769
tuned to the right
frequency, we would hear.

1076
00:52:24,853 --> 00:52:29,149
We simply haven't conducted
a long enough search yet,

1077
00:52:28,815 --> 00:52:31,401
at enough different frequencies

1078
00:52:32,485 --> 00:52:34,487
to even know if that's possible.

1079
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:38,366
- [Seth Shostak]
Most SETI experiments you spend
very little time

1080
00:52:38,450 --> 00:52:39,951
looking at any given direction

1081
00:52:39,451 --> 00:52:42,537
at any given spot
on the radio dial.

1082
00:52:42,037 --> 00:52:44,706
Seconds, minutes,
no more than that.

1083
00:52:44,164 --> 00:52:46,207
And you might say well
that doesn't sound

1084
00:52:46,291 --> 00:52:47,667
like a very good strategy.

1085
00:52:47,751 --> 00:52:49,377
Maybe they do broadcast
in our direction,

1086
00:52:49,461 --> 00:52:52,339
but only once a day or
once a week or once a year,

1087
00:52:51,921 --> 00:52:54,174
you're gonna miss
'em, most likely.

1088
00:52:54,007 --> 00:52:55,592
And that's true.

1089
00:52:55,091 --> 00:52:57,260
But if you're doing
this experiment

1090
00:52:57,344 --> 00:52:58,887
you have to decide what's
the better strategy.

1091
00:52:58,303 --> 00:53:01,306
Are you gonna use that
time to just keep looking

1092
00:53:01,389 --> 00:53:03,850
in the same direction
at the same frequencies

1093
00:53:03,308 --> 00:53:06,394
or are you going to look
at another star system?

1094
00:53:07,103 --> 00:53:10,607
It could be that somebody
is not incessantly

1095
00:53:10,690 --> 00:53:12,567
targeting the Earth,
'cause after all,

1096
00:53:12,650 --> 00:53:15,070
they probably don't know that
homo sapiens is here, right.

1097
00:53:14,569 --> 00:53:16,738
Unless they're
within 70 light years

1098
00:53:16,196 --> 00:53:18,948
they haven't picked
up the kind of radar

1099
00:53:18,490 --> 00:53:21,951
or FM radio or
television signals

1100
00:53:21,618 --> 00:53:23,912
that would betray our presence.

1101
00:53:23,578 --> 00:53:25,413
They know there's life on Earth

1102
00:53:24,871 --> 00:53:26,748
because of the oxygen
in our atmosphere,

1103
00:53:26,289 --> 00:53:27,999
but they don't know
that there's any

1104
00:53:28,083 --> 00:53:29,668
intelligent life, so you know,

1105
00:53:29,751 --> 00:53:31,378
how much money would you spend

1106
00:53:31,461 --> 00:53:34,881
to relentlessly target some
other planet with a signal

1107
00:53:34,339 --> 00:53:36,675
if all you knew was
that it had biology.

1108
00:53:36,341 --> 00:53:38,176
Maybe all it's got is microbes.

1109
00:53:38,259 --> 00:53:40,470
That's the situation
that obtained here

1110
00:53:39,886 --> 00:53:42,180
for a couple of billion
years, so you know.

1111
00:53:41,596 --> 00:53:43,807
Maybe you don't spend
a lot of money there,

1112
00:53:43,890 --> 00:53:46,601
but maybe what you do
is you have a long list

1113
00:53:46,685 --> 00:53:48,728
of all the planets
that you know have life

1114
00:53:48,812 --> 00:53:50,522
and you just target
them all sequentially,

1115
00:53:50,605 --> 00:53:52,065
you give them a
quick ping, right.

1116
00:53:52,148 --> 00:53:53,566
You give them a ping
and then you come back

1117
00:53:53,024 --> 00:53:55,068
two weeks later and
you ping them again,

1118
00:53:54,526 --> 00:53:57,112
or maybe two years later
or 200 years later.

1119
00:53:56,695 --> 00:53:58,196
And you just ping
them occasionally

1120
00:53:57,862 --> 00:53:59,989
and see if anything happens.

1121
00:54:00,073 --> 00:54:02,242
And you know, the Wow! signal
could have been a ping,

1122
00:54:02,325 --> 00:54:04,411
that's certainly a suggestion.

1123
00:54:04,494 --> 00:54:07,122
That's just one possibility,
there are many possibilities.

1124
00:54:07,205 --> 00:54:09,582
And unfortunately that
doesn't turn it into science

1125
00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:12,043
until you can prove that
one of them is true.

1126
00:54:13,461 --> 00:54:16,297
- [Narrator] Scientific
opinions continue to differ

1127
00:54:15,839 --> 00:54:18,842
about the origin
of the Wow! signal.

1128
00:54:18,091 --> 00:54:22,846
Even with the controversy, it
remains an extraordinary event

1129
00:54:22,178 --> 00:54:27,308
in the broader search for
extraterrestrial intelligence.

1130
00:54:27,392 --> 00:54:30,311
- I think probably the
majority of astronomers

1131
00:54:30,395 --> 00:54:33,231
think that it was just some
naturally occurring phenomenon

1132
00:54:32,981 --> 00:54:34,858
that just happened once.

1133
00:54:34,941 --> 00:54:39,112
We're left really not
knowing what caused it.

1134
00:54:39,195 --> 00:54:41,197
We can't really be
sure that it was

1135
00:54:41,281 --> 00:54:43,324
an extraterrestrial
civilization.

1136
00:54:43,908 --> 00:54:45,910
SETI's based on the presumption

1137
00:54:45,285 --> 00:54:50,790
that we are not the only
civilized society in the galaxy,

1138
00:54:50,123 --> 00:54:53,543
and that there are civilized
societies in the galaxy

1139
00:54:53,626 --> 00:54:57,756
that are willing and able
to communicate with us.

1140
00:54:57,255 --> 00:55:00,592
There are two primary
paths by which

1141
00:55:00,050 --> 00:55:03,219
we are looking for
life in the universe.

1142
00:55:03,303 --> 00:55:07,724
One is a systematic,
more scientific path.

1143
00:55:07,807 --> 00:55:09,976
The first step that you
might want to know is,

1144
00:55:10,060 --> 00:55:13,188
well, are there planets
around other stars at all?

1145
00:55:12,687 --> 00:55:15,065
Then if you know that
there are planets

1146
00:55:15,148 --> 00:55:18,068
around other stars, the next
thing you might wanna ask is,

1147
00:55:17,734 --> 00:55:19,611
well do those planetary systems

1148
00:55:19,277 --> 00:55:21,613
look anything like our own.

1149
00:55:21,696 --> 00:55:24,199
Once we find some
solar systems like ours

1150
00:55:23,740 --> 00:55:25,742
then what we really
want to look for

1151
00:55:25,825 --> 00:55:28,495
are planets like the
Earth, pale blue dots.

1152
00:55:27,869 --> 00:55:32,499
So those are rocky planets
with thin atmospheres

1153
00:55:31,831 --> 00:55:35,377
located at the right distance
from their parent star

1154
00:55:34,751 --> 00:55:38,296
where they can have liquid
water on the surface.

1155
00:55:38,380 --> 00:55:40,590
And that's a lot of the way
in which we go about science,

1156
00:55:40,674 --> 00:55:43,009
is we take one step at a time.

1157
00:55:42,425 --> 00:55:46,221
We build upon previous
advances in knowledge

1158
00:55:46,304 --> 00:55:49,683
till we ultimately get to the
final question that we want.

1159
00:55:49,766 --> 00:55:52,602
SETI, on the other hand, is
kinda like taking a novel

1160
00:55:52,686 --> 00:55:54,938
and going back to
the last chapter

1161
00:55:55,021 --> 00:55:57,023
and reading that and
finding out what happens.

1162
00:55:56,523 --> 00:55:59,526
It's kind of cheating,
in some sense,

1163
00:55:59,609 --> 00:56:02,654
it's not going through
the whole book.

1164
00:56:02,737 --> 00:56:04,531
So you're just trying
to look directly

1165
00:56:04,614 --> 00:56:08,159
for intelligent
civilizations immediately,

1166
00:56:08,243 --> 00:56:11,204
without having to go through
all the systematic process

1167
00:56:10,704 --> 00:56:14,290
of leading to the
discovery of life.

1168
00:56:14,791 --> 00:56:18,044
The opinions of
SETI and scientists

1169
00:56:18,128 --> 00:56:19,963
that are searching
for life range from

1170
00:56:20,046 --> 00:56:24,509
it's a crazy thing to do to
it's a reasonable thing to do.

1171
00:56:25,719 --> 00:56:27,637
- [Robert Dixon] SETI
is only for patient people.

1172
00:56:29,222 --> 00:56:32,267
Because you can
search a lifetime and
never find anything,

1173
00:56:31,766 --> 00:56:33,685
but it's still so
interesting and important

1174
00:56:33,768 --> 00:56:35,103
that you always do it.

1175
00:56:34,644 --> 00:56:37,230
So that's why people
like Jerry and I

1176
00:56:36,730 --> 00:56:39,441
get involved in doing
things like this.

1177
00:56:39,524 --> 00:56:43,236
The big danger in SETI is
called anthropomorphism.

1178
00:56:42,652 --> 00:56:45,572
Looking at things from
the viewpoint of man,

1179
00:56:45,655 --> 00:56:47,741
because that's the
only way we can.

1180
00:56:47,157 --> 00:56:49,617
We try not to think
about specific signals,

1181
00:56:49,701 --> 00:56:52,996
but look at general signals
which are narrow band,

1182
00:56:53,079 --> 00:56:56,082
which would be characteristic
of any such signals.

1183
00:56:56,166 --> 00:56:58,335
- [Michael Holstine]
I think that the Wow! signal,

1184
00:56:59,294 --> 00:57:03,923
even though it
couldn't be identified,

1185
00:57:04,007 --> 00:57:05,467
couldn't be verified,

1186
00:57:07,052 --> 00:57:10,889
was a kickstart to
the continued search

1187
00:57:10,972 --> 00:57:13,099
for extraterrestrial
intelligence.

1188
00:57:13,183 --> 00:57:16,853
I mean you think about
even a young scientist,

1189
00:57:16,269 --> 00:57:20,023
a young astronomer,
who is trying to decide

1190
00:57:20,106 --> 00:57:22,942
what his path or
what her path may be,

1191
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:25,111
you read something
about the Wow! Signal

1192
00:57:25,195 --> 00:57:27,864
and it gives you a
whole new door to open.

1193
00:57:27,405 --> 00:57:29,741
It gives you
another possibility.

1194
00:57:30,367 --> 00:57:33,411
- We're looking for something
that we don't know

1195
00:57:33,912 --> 00:57:38,833
is there or if we're gonna
ever be able to detect it.

1196
00:57:38,333 --> 00:57:42,879
And that's a difficult
thing to justify.

1197
00:57:42,962 --> 00:57:45,840
But it's also potentially
one of the most

1198
00:57:45,924 --> 00:57:50,136
important questions we
ever want to answer.

1199
00:57:49,678 --> 00:57:53,098
So you have this
balance of something

1200
00:57:53,181 --> 00:57:56,267
that's very high risk,
but very high gain.

1201
00:57:57,227 --> 00:58:00,021
- [Michael Holstine]
The search for extraterrestrial
intelligence,

1202
00:58:01,147 --> 00:58:03,191
I think it's fair to
say to some extent

1203
00:58:02,732 --> 00:58:06,861
has had a stigma
associated with it.

1204
00:58:06,695 --> 00:58:09,698
(dramatic music)

1205
00:58:17,497 --> 00:58:22,585
- [Nichol Cunningham]
The perception of SETI
is the UFOs and sightings.

1206
00:58:23,169 --> 00:58:25,255
That little green
man with big eyes.

1207
00:58:24,754 --> 00:58:28,133
And it's been
potentially difficult

1208
00:58:28,216 --> 00:58:32,762
to shake off that association.

1209
00:58:32,595 --> 00:58:35,223
- [Scott Gaudi] There's
an entire culture of people

1210
00:58:35,306 --> 00:58:38,601
that believe in UFOs,
and that we have in fact

1211
00:58:38,685 --> 00:58:41,980
been contacted by
aliens many, many times.

1212
00:58:42,063 --> 00:58:44,691
- [Karen O'Neil] Of course
there's a lot of excitement

1213
00:58:44,774 --> 00:58:47,861
around the idea of
aliens, of SETI,

1214
00:58:47,610 --> 00:58:49,946
of any of that, because,

1215
00:58:49,404 --> 00:58:51,865
how could it not be
just incredibly exciting

1216
00:58:51,239 --> 00:58:54,659
to think that there is
some other race out there,

1217
00:58:54,159 --> 00:58:57,078
some other very
exotic type of race

1218
00:58:56,453 --> 00:58:59,205
out there in the universe,
and the idea that hey,

1219
00:58:59,289 --> 00:59:01,124
we'll be able to
interact with them

1220
00:59:00,373 --> 00:59:03,960
is just really, really enticing
and really, really exciting.

1221
00:59:03,293 --> 00:59:08,006
- [Tom Burns] We get a lot
of UFO reports at Perkins,

1222
00:59:07,714 --> 00:59:10,342
in one form or another.

1223
00:59:10,425 --> 00:59:12,218
And I have to say,

1224
00:59:13,386 --> 00:59:17,515
it's always, always,
always some natural event.

1225
00:59:18,058 --> 00:59:20,143
There was one thing
that I saw one time

1226
00:59:20,226 --> 00:59:21,811
I had no idea what it was.

1227
00:59:21,895 --> 00:59:25,440
These beautiful
white points of light

1228
00:59:25,106 --> 00:59:27,942
darting around, darting around.

1229
00:59:28,026 --> 00:59:29,694
They were just a
whole lot of them.

1230
00:59:29,778 --> 00:59:32,989
So I got in my car and I
drove toward it, what was it?

1231
00:59:33,073 --> 00:59:38,161
It was a bunch of seagulls
dancing around a billboard.

1232
00:59:38,703 --> 00:59:40,914
The billboard lights
tend to point up

1233
00:59:40,246 --> 00:59:44,125
and it was the lights
reflecting off their stomachs.

1234
00:59:44,209 --> 00:59:46,419
Thought I had it,
but it was seagulls.

1235
00:59:47,253 --> 00:59:51,883
- [Michael Holstine]
The sensationalism that
surrounds SETI research

1236
00:59:51,966 --> 00:59:53,385
can be pretty amazing,

1237
00:59:52,842 --> 00:59:56,763
and Green Bank has
not been immune to it.

1238
00:59:56,262 --> 01:00:01,351
When a 300-foot telescope
collapsed in 1988

1239
01:00:01,017 --> 01:00:05,397
there were, albeit tabloid,

1240
01:00:05,480 --> 01:00:07,148
newspaper headlines that said

1241
01:00:06,564 --> 01:00:11,444
"Aliens destroy radio
telescope in Green Bank".

1242
01:00:11,986 --> 01:00:16,032
That's just proof of
the need for people

1243
01:00:15,699 --> 01:00:18,576
to think about the fantastical.

1244
01:00:18,201 --> 01:00:23,373
To be exposed to
the fantastical.

1245
01:00:22,747 --> 01:00:28,169
- If somebody could come
up with one thing one time,

1246
01:00:28,253 --> 01:00:30,755
that they could describe to me

1247
01:00:30,839 --> 01:00:33,883
that I couldn't figure
out what it was,

1248
01:00:33,967 --> 01:00:37,971
then I might be more interested
in this kind of thing.

1249
01:00:38,763 --> 01:00:40,390
(gentle music)

1250
01:00:40,473 --> 01:00:43,476
- [Karen O'Neil] Human beings
love to wonder why.

1251
01:00:44,686 --> 01:00:46,938
Are there beings out
there in the universe

1252
01:00:46,354 --> 01:00:50,692
is just so tantalizing,
so exciting to think

1253
01:00:50,775 --> 01:00:53,111
there's something else out
there, we're not alone.

1254
01:00:53,361 --> 01:00:56,698
- [Scott Gaudi] As a skeptic,
as a scientist I'm a skeptic,

1255
01:00:56,781 --> 01:00:58,533
and as a skeptic
I have to say that

1256
01:00:57,824 --> 01:01:01,369
I don't believe there's been
any real definitive evidence

1257
01:01:00,827 --> 01:01:04,831
of extraterrestrial
life contacting us.

1258
01:01:04,914 --> 01:01:06,458
Of course which
begs the question,

1259
01:01:06,541 --> 01:01:09,210
does that mean that
such life is rare?

1260
01:01:09,294 --> 01:01:12,881
A lot of people are familiar
with the Fermi paradox

1261
01:01:12,213 --> 01:01:17,886
which simply put is if
intelligent life is out there,

1262
01:01:17,969 --> 01:01:20,388
where are they, why
haven't they contacted us.

1263
01:01:20,472 --> 01:01:24,601
There are various solutions
to this apparent paradox,

1264
01:01:24,684 --> 01:01:26,728
but one of them is simply that

1265
01:01:26,811 --> 01:01:28,855
there is no other
intelligent life out there,

1266
01:01:28,188 --> 01:01:32,192
that we are the only
intelligent life in our galaxy.

1267
01:01:31,566 --> 01:01:36,029
If I were a betting man,
and I'm not, but if I were,

1268
01:01:36,112 --> 01:01:40,033
I would bet that simple life
is probably fairly common

1269
01:01:39,366 --> 01:01:44,496
and we will probably find
it, maybe not in my lifetime,

1270
01:01:43,953 --> 01:01:47,123
but certainly within the
next few hundred years.

1271
01:01:48,083 --> 01:01:49,459
- [Seth Shostak]
One of the problems with SETI

1272
01:01:48,958 --> 01:01:51,294
is that you can't
guarantee success.

1273
01:01:50,752 --> 01:01:53,838
If you decide that
as a young astronomer

1274
01:01:53,922 --> 01:01:55,298
you're gonna go
study exoplanets,

1275
01:01:55,382 --> 01:01:56,633
you can be sure
you're gonna find some

1276
01:01:56,174 --> 01:01:58,593
and you're gonna
learn something new.

1277
01:01:57,967 --> 01:02:01,638
You can't miss, we've found
thousands of exoplanets.

1278
01:02:01,721 --> 01:02:03,932
So, of course, you're
gonna find some.

1279
01:02:03,598 --> 01:02:06,267
With SETI, there's no guarantee.

1280
01:02:05,809 --> 01:02:09,020
It may be that
you spend decades,

1281
01:02:08,395 --> 01:02:11,815
maybe this take centuries,
maybe more, who knows,

1282
01:02:11,898 --> 01:02:13,400
to find something.

1283
01:02:12,816 --> 01:02:15,068
And all that time you
didn't find anything.

1284
01:02:15,151 --> 01:02:16,736
And you gotta be
able to take that.

1285
01:02:16,820 --> 01:02:18,947
You gotta be able to say
look, I'm down with that.

1286
01:02:19,030 --> 01:02:20,448
I can handle that.

1287
01:02:22,158 --> 01:02:24,160
- [Michael Holstine]
I personally feel that it is
entirely possible

1288
01:02:24,244 --> 01:02:28,081
that we will discover
life beyond our own.

1289
01:02:28,915 --> 01:02:32,293
Can I definitively say
that it's gonna happen

1290
01:02:31,960 --> 01:02:34,379
in my lifetime, no I can't.

1291
01:02:35,964 --> 01:02:37,507
Do I think it will happen?

1292
01:02:36,965 --> 01:02:39,968
I absolutely do think
that it'll happen.

1293
01:02:40,051 --> 01:02:44,347
I do believe that there's life
elsewhere beyond our planet.

1294
01:02:44,681 --> 01:02:48,143
How advanced that life
may be is a question,

1295
01:02:47,642 --> 01:02:51,938
but, certainly if
we have progressed

1296
01:02:52,022 --> 01:02:55,734
to the level of
intelligence that we are,

1297
01:02:55,191 --> 01:02:59,320
and some argue that well
maybe we aren't either,

1298
01:03:01,781 --> 01:03:06,077
I can't imagine that
other potential life forms

1299
01:03:06,161 --> 01:03:08,788
haven't progressed far
beyond where we are.

1300
01:03:09,497 --> 01:03:12,208
- [Karen O'Neil] Will we
discover life that is beyond

1301
01:03:11,583 --> 01:03:15,211
just the cellular life
and moving on to something

1302
01:03:15,295 --> 01:03:18,465
that is intelligent,
boy you know,

1303
01:03:18,548 --> 01:03:22,427
it's such a guess.

1304
01:03:24,679 --> 01:03:25,764
We might.

1305
01:03:28,725 --> 01:03:31,269
- [Tom Burns] I think you have
to be honest with people

1306
01:03:31,353 --> 01:03:35,231
from whom you are
asking for funding.

1307
01:03:34,898 --> 01:03:37,567
The difficulties are great here

1308
01:03:37,025 --> 01:03:41,321
and the chances of
success are very limited.

1309
01:03:42,530 --> 01:03:45,241
And you probably
won't find anything.

1310
01:03:50,372 --> 01:03:53,625
- [Michael Holstine]
Funding of basic research seems
to be a challenge.

1311
01:03:54,125 --> 01:03:56,586
Especially in this day and age.

1312
01:03:56,670 --> 01:03:59,089
We can't say that we're
creating anything.

1313
01:03:58,755 --> 01:04:01,341
We're not building widgets,

1314
01:04:00,840 --> 01:04:04,177
we're not selling
something for retail,

1315
01:04:03,843 --> 01:04:06,805
we're doing basic research.

1316
01:04:06,262 --> 01:04:10,100
And basic research
sometimes is a hard sell.

1317
01:04:10,183 --> 01:04:12,560
Americans like a
result, you know.

1318
01:04:12,018 --> 01:04:15,271
They like something they
can hold in their hands.

1319
01:04:16,981 --> 01:04:18,733
- [Ellie White] Careful.

1320
01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:20,193
- [Shopper] Where is Copernicus?

1321
01:04:20,276 --> 01:04:21,736
- [Ellie White]
There's a tag in there

1322
01:04:21,820 --> 01:04:23,113
it says loose.
- [Shopper] Is that Einstein

1323
01:04:23,196 --> 01:04:23,738
right there?
- [Ellie White] Yeah.

1324
01:04:25,156 --> 01:04:29,202
- Ever since 2012,
the observatory has faced

1325
01:04:29,285 --> 01:04:31,955
some issues in terms
of decreased funding.

1326
01:04:34,207 --> 01:04:36,334
- [Narrator] As the
first National Radio

1327
01:04:35,750 --> 01:04:39,295
Astronomy Observatory
in the United States,

1328
01:04:38,795 --> 01:04:41,923
Green Bank had always
been fully funded

1329
01:04:41,423 --> 01:04:44,676
by the National
Science Foundation.

1330
01:04:44,342 --> 01:04:46,219
But changing federal priorities

1331
01:04:46,302 --> 01:04:49,347
created funding
challenges over the years.

1332
01:04:49,556 --> 01:04:53,226
In 2012, the National
Science Foundation

1333
01:04:52,892 --> 01:04:56,062
recommended a gradual defunding

1334
01:04:55,729 --> 01:04:57,480
of the Green Bank facility.

1335
01:04:58,064 --> 01:05:00,483
- [Michael Holstine] You know,
the potential is there

1336
01:04:59,816 --> 01:05:02,861
that one of the options is
dismantling the telescope.

1337
01:05:02,569 --> 01:05:05,405
You know, we disappear.

1338
01:05:04,779 --> 01:05:09,325
And the research that's
done here at Green Bank

1339
01:05:09,159 --> 01:05:10,535
could disappear.

1340
01:05:11,161 --> 01:05:15,457
- There's nobody
I'm aware of that would like

1341
01:05:15,206 --> 01:05:17,459
to see Green Bank close.

1342
01:05:17,542 --> 01:05:19,169
And I mean that all
the way to the people

1343
01:05:19,252 --> 01:05:20,545
that are making the
funding decisions

1344
01:05:20,295 --> 01:05:22,172
to cut back our funding.

1345
01:05:22,255 --> 01:05:24,007
They really don't want
to see this place close.

1346
01:05:24,090 --> 01:05:25,967
Nobody wants to see
this place close.

1347
01:05:26,384 --> 01:05:29,596
- While the observatory
could find other

1348
01:05:29,679 --> 01:05:32,223
collaborative parties which
could provide funding,

1349
01:05:32,307 --> 01:05:35,226
the problem with that
is the NSF provides

1350
01:05:34,726 --> 01:05:37,228
open sky science,
which means anyone

1351
01:05:36,895 --> 01:05:39,105
can come in and apply for time,

1352
01:05:38,688 --> 01:05:41,274
whether they have
the money or not.

1353
01:05:41,358 --> 01:05:44,527
That is a really important
thing to keep going.

1354
01:05:44,611 --> 01:05:47,364
We're just gonna try to
do what we can to help

1355
01:05:47,447 --> 01:05:49,699
keep that secured.

1356
01:05:50,909 --> 01:05:53,078
The Green Bank
Observatory has had

1357
01:05:53,161 --> 01:05:55,205
more impact than I can say

1358
01:05:55,288 --> 01:05:59,209
on my future and my ideas
of what I'd like to do.

1359
01:05:59,292 --> 01:06:03,088
Aspects of astronomy that
I was not familiar with.

1360
01:06:03,171 --> 01:06:04,881
For example, I've
gotten so interested

1361
01:06:04,547 --> 01:06:07,092
in the instrumentation side.

1362
01:06:07,175 --> 01:06:09,969
I just think it's
really important to
have that background

1363
01:06:10,053 --> 01:06:11,846
in knowing your
equipment and knowing

1364
01:06:11,596 --> 01:06:13,306
what you're researching,

1365
01:06:13,390 --> 01:06:15,475
so that you can do
things like compare

1366
01:06:15,225 --> 01:06:16,810
is this an actual signal

1367
01:06:16,351 --> 01:06:19,979
or is this some sort
of system issue.

1368
01:06:20,063 --> 01:06:23,108
Which I think is really
important in SETI

1369
01:06:22,399 --> 01:06:27,237
as well as in every field of
research in radio astronomy.

1370
01:06:28,113 --> 01:06:29,864
- [Michael Holstine]
When I first met Ellie White,

1371
01:06:29,948 --> 01:06:32,784
her and her mother
came into my office.

1372
01:06:32,450 --> 01:06:34,744
She was about 11 years old.

1373
01:06:35,620 --> 01:06:39,624
And the funding problems
for Green Bank Observatory

1374
01:06:39,290 --> 01:06:41,876
had sort of just been released.

1375
01:06:41,418 --> 01:06:44,921
And Ellie had been,
in her own time,

1376
01:06:44,379 --> 01:06:49,342
creating these cloth
dolls of scientists.

1377
01:06:49,426 --> 01:06:53,096
So she picked her favorite
scientific people from history.

1378
01:06:52,429 --> 01:06:58,184
And she had a Madam Curie
doll and she had these others.

1379
01:06:57,851 --> 01:07:00,061
And the purpose of her visit

1380
01:07:00,145 --> 01:07:04,858
was to see if we might want to
sell those in our gift shop.

1381
01:07:04,941 --> 01:07:06,568
Which I thought, well
that's kind of cool,

1382
01:07:06,651 --> 01:07:09,821
you know maybe we could
do something with her.

1383
01:07:09,904 --> 01:07:12,741
But what she said next is
what I'll never forget.

1384
01:07:12,824 --> 01:07:14,617
It'll be one of those moments

1385
01:07:14,701 --> 01:07:18,246
that will live with me
well after I'm retired.

1386
01:07:18,872 --> 01:07:21,708
The reason that she wanted
to sell them in our gift shop

1387
01:07:21,791 --> 01:07:24,878
is because she wanted to
give part of the proceeds

1388
01:07:24,961 --> 01:07:29,507
back to the observatory
to help fund our mission.

1389
01:07:30,550 --> 01:07:33,928
- [Ellie White] So these are
two of the scientist dolls.

1390
01:07:33,303 --> 01:07:37,891
This is Nicholas Copernicus
and Albert Einstein.

1391
01:07:38,683 --> 01:07:40,185
I started showing them
to people and they said

1392
01:07:39,642 --> 01:07:42,771
you should sell these,
so I thought well,

1393
01:07:42,854 --> 01:07:44,439
I'll sell them and donate part

1394
01:07:44,522 --> 01:07:46,232
of the profits to Green Bank.

1395
01:07:45,607 --> 01:07:47,776
- [Interviewer] How
appreciative have they been

1396
01:07:47,859 --> 01:07:49,152
about these dolls?

1397
01:07:49,235 --> 01:07:54,240
- Very, they're very
appreciative and,

1398
01:07:54,491 --> 01:07:56,993
just it's great to hear
some of the stories

1399
01:07:57,077 --> 01:07:59,287
of people who come
in and buy 'em.

1400
01:07:58,787 --> 01:08:01,122
I think the first
doll that was sold

1401
01:08:00,789 --> 01:08:03,291
was to a lady from New Zealand.

1402
01:08:02,749 --> 01:08:04,751
- [Interviewer] Will
you keep doing this?

1403
01:08:06,211 --> 01:08:09,631
- Yeah, as long as I can keep
up with the demand. (laughs)

1404
01:08:11,132 --> 01:08:15,178
- [Michael Holstine]
Green Bank has had such
a profound effect on her.

1405
01:08:14,678 --> 01:08:19,641
Just the exposure
to what we do here

1406
01:08:19,349 --> 01:08:21,476
changed her completely.

1407
01:08:21,017 --> 01:08:25,271
She became so passionate
about astronomy,

1408
01:08:25,355 --> 01:08:28,066
so passionate about protecting

1409
01:08:27,565 --> 01:08:30,360
the Green Bank
Observatory, to make sure

1410
01:08:29,818 --> 01:08:33,279
that other people get
the same reaction,

1411
01:08:33,363 --> 01:08:34,948
you know, get the same effect.

1412
01:08:34,698 --> 01:08:37,492
- [Deana White] Now this has
been a life-changing experience

1413
01:08:36,991 --> 01:08:40,829
for Ellie, for Josh,
my son, for us.

1414
01:08:40,912 --> 01:08:43,957
She's learned things
about how to ask questions

1415
01:08:43,623 --> 01:08:47,377
without fear, to have curiosity

1416
01:08:47,460 --> 01:08:49,004
and enthusiasm about learning,

1417
01:08:49,087 --> 01:08:51,715
which is really what we
are all striving for.

1418
01:08:51,798 --> 01:08:54,384
And it's what we look
to the heavens for.

1419
01:08:54,467 --> 01:08:57,262
- [Karen O'Neil] Ellie's passion
for science and for astronomy

1420
01:08:57,345 --> 01:09:00,348
is amazing and it's just
really neat to watch.

1421
01:09:00,432 --> 01:09:05,145
If we were, heaven
forbid, to stop funding

1422
01:09:04,436 --> 01:09:07,856
fundamental science then I
think we lose a lot of things.

1423
01:09:07,939 --> 01:09:10,817
I think in the near
term we lose a little

1424
01:09:10,483 --> 01:09:12,152
piece of humanity, I think.

1425
01:09:11,693 --> 01:09:13,486
We lose a little
piece of our ability

1426
01:09:13,153 --> 01:09:15,113
to just ask the question why

1427
01:09:15,196 --> 01:09:18,324
and try to understand
who and how we got here.

1428
01:09:17,741 --> 01:09:20,493
And then in the long
term, if you don't have

1429
01:09:20,577 --> 01:09:23,496
people doing the basic
fundamental research

1430
01:09:22,996 --> 01:09:26,416
you're not gonna have
big breakthroughs

1431
01:09:26,499 --> 01:09:29,919
10, 20 years from now in
understanding everything.

1432
01:09:30,003 --> 01:09:32,797
And to me that's the most
important part of all this.

1433
01:09:33,798 --> 01:09:37,093
- [Stephen] It's time to
commit to finding the answer

1434
01:09:36,760 --> 01:09:42,265
to search for life beyond earth.

1435
01:09:42,724 --> 01:09:47,145
The Breakthrough Initiatives
are making that commitment.

1436
01:09:47,228 --> 01:09:50,106
- Breakthrough Listen
takes the search

1437
01:09:49,606 --> 01:09:51,608
for intelligent
life in the universe

1438
01:09:51,691 --> 01:09:53,943
to a completely new level.

1439
01:09:55,487 --> 01:09:59,115
- [Narrator] In 2015, Russian
billionaire Yuri Milner,

1440
01:09:58,448 --> 01:10:02,452
along with Stephen Hawking,
Frank Drake, and others

1441
01:10:01,785 --> 01:10:05,413
developed a long-term initiative
dedicated to the search

1442
01:10:04,829 --> 01:10:08,333
for intelligent
civilizations beyond Earth.

1443
01:10:08,833 --> 01:10:11,169
The highly funded SETI project,

1444
01:10:11,252 --> 01:10:13,046
known as Breakthrough Listen,

1445
01:10:12,379 --> 01:10:16,424
required the world's most
powerful radio telescopes,

1446
01:10:15,757 --> 01:10:19,969
including the world's
largest fully steerable scope

1447
01:10:20,053 --> 01:10:22,472
at the Green Bank Observatory.

1448
01:10:21,721 --> 01:10:26,226
Much like Ohio State's Big Ear
Telescope many years earlier,

1449
01:10:25,809 --> 01:10:28,269
Green Bank's path
led to the search

1450
01:10:28,353 --> 01:10:31,022
for extraterrestrial
intelligence,

1451
01:10:30,480 --> 01:10:34,484
and the opportunity came
at the perfect time.

1452
01:10:34,567 --> 01:10:39,197
- [Michael Holstine]
It's interesting how the timing
of these things works out.

1453
01:10:38,863 --> 01:10:41,825
The GBT and the Green Bank site

1454
01:10:41,157 --> 01:10:45,662
were in need of finding
external sources of funding.

1455
01:10:45,328 --> 01:10:47,455
The Breakthrough Listen program

1456
01:10:47,539 --> 01:10:50,500
is a privately-funded project,

1457
01:10:50,583 --> 01:10:55,338
over 10 years, with $100
million being spent on it.

1458
01:10:54,879 --> 01:10:59,259
It is the next
huge modern search

1459
01:10:59,342 --> 01:11:03,179
dedicated to extraterrestrial
intelligence detection.

1460
01:11:03,263 --> 01:11:07,684
They needed to utilize
the best technology

1461
01:11:07,767 --> 01:11:09,227
that they could find.

1462
01:11:08,768 --> 01:11:11,479
And the GBT, the
Green Bank Telescope

1463
01:11:11,563 --> 01:11:14,941
is a radio telescope
that can give them

1464
01:11:14,441 --> 01:11:18,194
more sensitivity,
more sky coverage,

1465
01:11:17,610 --> 01:11:20,947
than any other radio
telescope in the world.

1466
01:11:21,322 --> 01:11:23,700
- [Ellie White] The search for
extraterrestrial intelligence

1467
01:11:23,783 --> 01:11:26,828
has been going on for
more than 50 years now.

1468
01:11:26,911 --> 01:11:28,830
With the advent of
Breakthrough Listen

1469
01:11:28,038 --> 01:11:32,625
20% of the Green Bank
Telescope's time per
year is dedicated

1470
01:11:32,042 --> 01:11:35,545
to the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence.

1471
01:11:35,628 --> 01:11:38,256
And that is hundreds of hours.

1472
01:11:37,630 --> 01:11:42,177
Much, much more time and
resources put towards SETI.

1473
01:11:41,676 --> 01:11:44,512
So I think that really
ups your chances.

1474
01:11:45,889 --> 01:11:48,099
- Would we like to actually
see a signal in there?

1475
01:11:47,766 --> 01:11:50,393
Of course, it would be amazing.

1476
01:11:50,477 --> 01:11:52,228
It would change the way we
would look at the universe,

1477
01:11:51,644 --> 01:11:55,357
because it's one thing
to say there might be

1478
01:11:54,814 --> 01:11:57,567
a signal out there, it's
another thing to say

1479
01:11:57,650 --> 01:11:59,819
we have found a
signal out there.

1480
01:12:00,987 --> 01:12:04,699
- Green Bank is searching
for its own Wow! signal.

1481
01:12:04,783 --> 01:12:07,160
We are looking for the signal

1482
01:12:06,701 --> 01:12:09,120
that's gonna knock
our socks off.

1483
01:12:09,204 --> 01:12:11,456
And we can't wait
'til we find it.

1484
01:12:12,290 --> 01:12:16,336
Why would we ever want
to give up the capability

1485
01:12:16,419 --> 01:12:19,214
to expand our horizon?

1486
01:12:18,880 --> 01:12:23,259
And go back to a level where

1487
01:12:22,634 --> 01:12:27,472
even the most basic
question about our universe

1488
01:12:26,721 --> 01:12:32,435
has to go unanswered because
we didn't put a dollar into it.

1489
01:12:33,186 --> 01:12:36,606
If the GBT or the
Green Bank Observatory

1490
01:12:36,690 --> 01:12:39,442
were to disappear, it's gone.

1491
01:12:40,151 --> 01:12:42,737
These are national treasures

1492
01:12:42,404 --> 01:12:44,698
located all around this country,

1493
01:12:44,781 --> 01:12:47,158
and some located all
around the globe,

1494
01:12:47,242 --> 01:12:50,453
that we just don't
want to give up.

1495
01:12:49,911 --> 01:12:53,581
The amount of money that
it takes to run them

1496
01:12:53,665 --> 01:12:56,793
is minuscule compared
to the potential

1497
01:12:57,293 --> 01:13:01,339
for expanding our
knowledge that exists

1498
01:13:01,423 --> 01:13:03,049
because they are here.

1499
01:13:09,097 --> 01:13:12,392
(car engines humming)

1500
01:13:24,988 --> 01:13:28,533
- [Interviewer]
This stuff is neat.

1501
01:13:33,663 --> 01:13:35,248
What are we looking at in here?

1502
01:13:36,124 --> 01:13:39,210
- We're coming to
the Big Ear room.

1503
01:13:38,877 --> 01:13:42,213
This is the room that we created

1504
01:13:41,963 --> 01:13:44,591
in honor of the Big Ear,

1505
01:13:44,674 --> 01:13:48,094
and we made copies
of the Wow! signal,

1506
01:13:48,178 --> 01:13:51,848
the data that we
call the Wow! signal.

1507
01:13:51,931 --> 01:13:57,437
And we have built a
beautiful scale model

1508
01:13:56,936 --> 01:14:02,192
of the telescope,
the Big Ear Telescope.

1509
01:14:02,275 --> 01:14:07,364
Imagine taking this element
right here, the collector,

1510
01:14:08,531 --> 01:14:13,995
and moving this enormous
metal structure up and down

1511
01:14:13,661 --> 01:14:16,414
so that you collect information

1512
01:14:16,498 --> 01:14:19,834
from different parts of the
sky than say straight up.

1513
01:14:20,502 --> 01:14:24,047
- [Interviewer] Can you
take us out to the Big Ear?

1514
01:14:24,130 --> 01:14:25,382
- Sure, let's go.

1515
01:14:34,057 --> 01:14:36,351
That just happened, of course.

1516
01:14:36,434 --> 01:14:38,353
And we'll get that out
of there eventually.

1517
01:14:38,436 --> 01:14:39,938
Humph, eventually.

1518
01:14:42,232 --> 01:14:44,609
I come back here
practically every day.

1519
01:14:50,615 --> 01:14:54,953
Big Ear is just over
the crest of this hill.

1520
01:14:57,539 --> 01:15:00,709
Oh, I hate to walk on a golf
course in my street shoes,

1521
01:15:00,792 --> 01:15:02,919
but what are you gonna do?

1522
01:15:05,588 --> 01:15:08,591
Ladies and gents, Big Ear.

1523
01:15:11,594 --> 01:15:14,389
(gentle music)

1524
01:15:22,480 --> 01:15:26,359
- [Narrator] After losing
federal funding in the 1970s,

1525
01:15:25,775 --> 01:15:28,862
the Big Ear telescope
shifted to the search

1526
01:15:28,945 --> 01:15:31,698
for extraterrestrial
intelligence.

1527
01:15:31,781 --> 01:15:34,659
Besides discovering the
historic Wow! signal,

1528
01:15:34,743 --> 01:15:37,370
the Ohio State SETI
Program was recognized

1529
01:15:36,911 --> 01:15:39,330
by the Guinness Book
of World Records

1530
01:15:39,080 --> 01:15:40,874
for running the longest,

1531
01:15:40,957 --> 01:15:43,501
full-scale SETI
program for its time.

1532
01:15:45,211 --> 01:15:49,758
In 1997, despite
its contributions
to radio astronomy,

1533
01:15:49,174 --> 01:15:52,635
developers decided the
land under the Big Ear

1534
01:15:52,719 --> 01:15:55,764
would be better served
as a housing development

1535
01:15:55,597 --> 01:15:57,098
and golf course.

1536
01:15:57,724 --> 01:16:01,644
- [Jerry Ehman] We got word
that the land had been sold

1537
01:16:01,102 --> 01:16:05,857
out from under us,
without even informing

1538
01:16:05,940 --> 01:16:07,817
Dr. John Kraus or anybody.

1539
01:16:07,275 --> 01:16:11,279
They simply sold the
land to land developers.

1540
01:16:11,363 --> 01:16:15,575
And their goal was to increase
the size of the golf course

1541
01:16:15,658 --> 01:16:18,745
from a nine-hole course
to an 18-hole course,

1542
01:16:18,161 --> 01:16:23,541
and then to build some
400 homes on the land.

1543
01:16:23,625 --> 01:16:28,505
Just a few months before
John Kraus died at age 94,

1544
01:16:28,588 --> 01:16:32,759
he decided he needed
to write a little note

1545
01:16:32,842 --> 01:16:35,136
expressing this as
a day of infamy,

1546
01:16:35,220 --> 01:16:38,264
the day that he
received notification

1547
01:16:38,348 --> 01:16:41,351
that the Big Ear was
going to be torn down.

1548
01:16:41,810 --> 01:16:45,146
- [Robert Dixon] That caused
a great hue and cry,

1549
01:16:45,230 --> 01:16:46,731
and Ohio State University said

1550
01:16:46,815 --> 01:16:48,900
we are not going to
spend money with lawsuits

1551
01:16:48,983 --> 01:16:50,902
fighting over developers.

1552
01:16:50,568 --> 01:16:52,278
So they threw in the towel.

1553
01:16:53,613 --> 01:16:56,574
(melancholy music)

1554
01:17:07,502 --> 01:17:12,340
- [Robert Gray] Had they had
a well-financed research program
going,

1555
01:17:11,881 --> 01:17:15,135
I think they might
have survived.

1556
01:17:16,344 --> 01:17:20,932
Unfortunately, a lot of these
major scientific instruments

1557
01:17:20,473 --> 01:17:25,353
get superseded, they
become obsolete.

1558
01:17:25,854 --> 01:17:29,691
The interest of
science, scientists,

1559
01:17:29,774 --> 01:17:32,986
and science funding
agencies moves on.

1560
01:17:34,779 --> 01:17:36,781
- [Tom Burns]
The Big Ear had its day.

1561
01:17:36,865 --> 01:17:40,118
It did important
research in astronomy.

1562
01:17:40,201 --> 01:17:43,955
It did that SETI research
for all of those years.

1563
01:17:44,039 --> 01:17:49,127
But there comes a time
when old technology

1564
01:17:49,210 --> 01:17:53,590
simply has outlived
its usefulness

1565
01:17:53,673 --> 01:17:57,719
and with sadness
you tear it down.

1566
01:17:59,596 --> 01:18:02,891
It was a sad moment
to see it go,

1567
01:18:03,600 --> 01:18:06,353
but the simple fact was

1568
01:18:05,852 --> 01:18:08,730
that it had outlived
its usefulness.

1569
01:18:08,396 --> 01:18:11,691
It had its time in the sun,

1570
01:18:11,107 --> 01:18:16,863
and the land was useful
for other purposes.

1571
01:18:17,947 --> 01:18:19,574
- [Interviewer] Do you
think a golf course and

1572
01:18:19,657 --> 01:18:21,284
housing development, do
you think that was useful?

1573
01:18:21,368 --> 01:18:26,122
- Well the fact is that,
before the Big Ear came along,

1574
01:18:26,206 --> 01:18:28,458
the land was basically
just wasteland.

1575
01:18:27,999 --> 01:18:31,211
It was covered with
trees and brush.

1576
01:18:30,877 --> 01:18:34,964
And of course the Big Ear really

1577
01:18:35,048 --> 01:18:36,716
wasn't good for much anymore.

1578
01:18:36,800 --> 01:18:41,888
The simple fact was it
was frozen in place.

1579
01:18:42,305 --> 01:18:45,100
You could no longer
remove the main primary

1580
01:18:44,516 --> 01:18:48,937
light gathering device
up and down like this,

1581
01:18:48,478 --> 01:18:51,481
so it was frozen
in place like this.

1582
01:18:50,980 --> 01:18:53,525
So that what they
essentially had to do

1583
01:18:52,941 --> 01:18:57,112
was to wait for the sky
to rotate above them

1584
01:18:57,195 --> 01:19:00,532
if they wanted to collect
information on a given star,

1585
01:18:59,989 --> 01:19:03,451
or from a given star
to do SETI research.

1586
01:19:03,868 --> 01:19:06,204
- [Interviewer] People miss it?

1587
01:19:06,287 --> 01:19:09,124
- I would say there
was a giant uproar

1588
01:19:08,832 --> 01:19:11,334
when the land was sold.

1589
01:19:11,418 --> 01:19:16,256
But by the time the Big
Ear was finally torn down,

1590
01:19:17,382 --> 01:19:20,010
people weren't so
upset about it.

1591
01:19:20,093 --> 01:19:22,178
(gentle music)

1592
01:19:22,262 --> 01:19:25,265
- [Robert Gray] Is the
Ohio State Observatory an icon?

1593
01:19:25,348 --> 01:19:28,643
A temple of science
that shouldn't

1594
01:19:28,727 --> 01:19:31,730
have been demolished?

1595
01:19:32,522 --> 01:19:37,027
It accomplished a lot, but I
don't think it was an icon.

1596
01:19:37,902 --> 01:19:39,988
Unfortunately, if it turns out

1597
01:19:40,071 --> 01:19:41,865
the Wow! signal's
the real thing,

1598
01:19:41,948 --> 01:19:44,784
that sometime,
somewhere down the road

1599
01:19:44,868 --> 01:19:48,872
somebody demonstrates that
it's an interstellar broadcast,

1600
01:19:49,372 --> 01:19:51,875
it'll be tragic that

1601
01:19:51,332 --> 01:19:56,171
the Ohio State Radio
Telescope was torn down.

1602
01:19:58,798 --> 01:20:01,259
- [Seth Shostak] If the Wow!
signal had been verified,

1603
01:20:00,925 --> 01:20:02,886
if it had been found again,

1604
01:20:02,385 --> 01:20:05,096
then, you know, it
would be in every

1605
01:20:05,180 --> 01:20:06,473
history book in the world.

1606
01:20:06,139 --> 01:20:07,891
That would be in one of the most

1607
01:20:07,974 --> 01:20:09,934
important discoveries
of all time.

1608
01:20:10,018 --> 01:20:12,062
And because of the
fact that it has

1609
01:20:11,394 --> 01:20:14,731
this wonderful name, Jerry
Ehman was really brilliant

1610
01:20:14,481 --> 01:20:15,940
to write wow next to it.

1611
01:20:16,024 --> 01:20:18,151
If he'd just made a check mark

1612
01:20:18,234 --> 01:20:20,278
probably nobody would have
ever heard the Wow! Signal,

1613
01:20:20,362 --> 01:20:22,322
at least the public probably
wouldn't have heard of it.

1614
01:20:21,988 --> 01:20:24,366
So that's the difference between

1615
01:20:23,698 --> 01:20:27,744
a confirmed result and an
ambiguous one, unfortunately.

1616
01:20:28,912 --> 01:20:31,414
(gentle music)

1617
01:20:33,958 --> 01:20:35,377
- [Narrator] Why do we search?

1618
01:20:36,086 --> 01:20:39,422
The road is long,
with few rewards.

1619
01:20:39,839 --> 01:20:43,009
The skepticism demanded
by good science

1620
01:20:42,717 --> 01:20:45,136
tempers our excitement.

1621
01:20:45,220 --> 01:20:47,347
And discovery remains elusive.

1622
01:20:48,348 --> 01:20:51,101
And yet we persevere.

1623
01:20:50,517 --> 01:20:55,146
Fascinated by the
possibility of what could be.

1624
01:20:57,315 --> 01:20:58,942
- [Robert Gray]
Why care about life elsewhere?

1625
01:20:59,818 --> 01:21:01,486
That's a good question.

1626
01:21:03,571 --> 01:21:08,368
Life here is a riot
of different forms,

1627
01:21:08,451 --> 01:21:12,497
colors, sizes, noises,
environments, behaviors.

1628
01:21:12,956 --> 01:21:18,044
And I think that people
probably have an innate

1629
01:21:17,293 --> 01:21:22,173
interest in whether something
like that happened elsewhere.

1630
01:21:22,257 --> 01:21:26,428
And the only way to
settle that question,

1631
01:21:26,511 --> 01:21:28,263
of course, is to go look.

1632
01:21:29,556 --> 01:21:33,768
- I do think there
is extraterrestrial
intelligent life.

1633
01:21:34,853 --> 01:21:39,190
And more than one
instance in our galaxy,

1634
01:21:39,274 --> 01:21:41,818
and certainly in our universe.

1635
01:21:42,652 --> 01:21:45,572
- [Robert Dixon]
The universe is so vast

1636
01:21:45,030 --> 01:21:49,576
and the Earth and the
sun are not unique

1637
01:21:49,242 --> 01:21:51,119
in any way that we know of.

1638
01:21:51,202 --> 01:21:53,079
There are literally
millions and billions

1639
01:21:52,746 --> 01:21:55,373
of other planets like the Earth.

1640
01:21:56,041 --> 01:21:59,753
It just seems
scientifically improbable

1641
01:21:59,836 --> 01:22:02,422
that life would have
emerged only here.

1642
01:22:02,505 --> 01:22:05,592
But on the other hand,
someone has to be the first.

1643
01:22:05,675 --> 01:22:07,886
So maybe we are the first.

1644
01:22:07,969 --> 01:22:10,347
If so, it gives us a
greater responsibility

1645
01:22:10,430 --> 01:22:12,974
to say, all right,
we're the first,

1646
01:22:12,640 --> 01:22:15,226
we better not destroy ourselves.

1647
01:22:14,768 --> 01:22:18,104
We better repopulate
the universe

1648
01:22:17,604 --> 01:22:21,024
and make things
better for everyone.

1649
01:22:20,440 --> 01:22:23,276
And not blow ourselves
up in some stupid way.

1650
01:22:24,611 --> 01:22:29,157
- [Scott Gaudi] We desperately
want meaning of some sort.

1651
01:22:29,240 --> 01:22:31,409
We'd like to know
why we're here.

1652
01:22:31,493 --> 01:22:33,370
Are we here just
by random accident

1653
01:22:33,453 --> 01:22:35,830
or are we here on purpose?

1654
01:22:35,914 --> 01:22:39,668
We are trying to find
context to our humanity.

1655
01:22:40,669 --> 01:22:42,754
- [Seth Shostak]
It's really hard to predict

1656
01:22:42,837 --> 01:22:44,798
what the consequences
of finding a signal,

1657
01:22:44,881 --> 01:22:46,132
proving that we're not alone.

1658
01:22:46,216 --> 01:22:48,259
What consequences
that would have?

1659
01:22:48,343 --> 01:22:50,261
This would be sort of
an inflection point,

1660
01:22:49,928 --> 01:22:52,180
a change in human civilization,

1661
01:22:51,596 --> 01:22:54,766
'cause we would know that
somebody's out there.

1662
01:22:54,849 --> 01:22:57,268
If we could ever understand
any part of the signal

1663
01:22:56,935 --> 01:22:58,520
that might change us much more,

1664
01:22:58,103 --> 01:23:00,730
because you would
suddenly be privy

1665
01:23:00,397 --> 01:23:02,315
to knowledge that's most likely

1666
01:23:01,981 --> 01:23:04,234
far more advanced than our own.

1667
01:23:04,317 --> 01:23:06,361
So, you know, that
could change everything.

1668
01:23:07,278 --> 01:23:09,739
- [Tom Burns]
Think of the impact of it.

1669
01:23:10,365 --> 01:23:16,621
The entire world
would be transformed

1670
01:23:18,248 --> 01:23:22,919
when each and every person
on this planet realized

1671
01:23:23,003 --> 01:23:25,505
that we are not alone.

1672
01:23:26,673 --> 01:23:31,177
We live, sometimes,
in a difficult,

1673
01:23:30,927 --> 01:23:34,055
ugly, violent world.

1674
01:23:35,015 --> 01:23:40,729
And you're looking for
some solace from that.

1675
01:23:41,354 --> 01:23:44,399
And the one thing that

1676
01:23:44,482 --> 01:23:49,487
this search for extraterrestrial
intelligence gives you

1677
01:23:50,280 --> 01:23:52,741
is that kind of hope.

1678
01:23:54,200 --> 01:23:55,618
We want this.

1679
01:23:56,911 --> 01:23:59,956
We want that sense, even more,

1680
01:23:59,622 --> 01:24:03,543
that we are capable of escaping

1681
01:24:03,001 --> 01:24:07,547
the tyranny of the
gravity that holds us.

1682
01:24:07,630 --> 01:24:12,677
That we can soar outward
into the universe.

1683
01:24:13,470 --> 01:24:15,263
And where do we find that?

1684
01:24:14,929 --> 01:24:18,224
In the hope, the faint hope,

1685
01:24:17,599 --> 01:24:23,355
that other civilizations
have survived their crises,

1686
01:24:23,980 --> 01:24:26,399
been around for long enough

1687
01:24:26,483 --> 01:24:29,444
to be able to soar themselves.

1688
01:24:31,279 --> 01:24:32,364
We're lonely.

1689
01:24:35,533 --> 01:24:38,370
We want that sense

1690
01:24:40,288 --> 01:24:42,248
that we are not alone.

1691
01:24:44,459 --> 01:24:47,712
We want it so badly.

1692
01:24:50,548 --> 01:24:53,343
(tender music)

1693
01:26:13,757 --> 01:26:17,177
(inquisitive music)