Late on a summer night in 1977, a massive radio telescope in Ohio picked up a mysterious, 72-second blast of radio waves coming from deep space. When astronomer Jerry Ehman saw the data on a computer printout, he was so shocked by how strong and unusual the signal was that he grabbed a red pen, circled the code “6EQUJ5,” and wrote “Wow!” in the margin. To this day, it remains one of our best “maybe” clues that someone else might be out there, because the signal didn’t look like anything nature usually creates—yet, despite decades of listening, we’ve never heard it happen again.
The “Wow! signal” was recorded on August 15, 1977 at the Ohio State University Radio Observatory, famously nicknamed “Big Ear.” The telescope was located on the grounds of the Perkins Observatory at GPS coordinates 40°15′03″N, 83°02′58″W. The local time in Ohio during the detection was 11:16 PM (23:16) EDT, and the radio-wave signal ran for 72 seconds on the clock. Let’s look at an astrological chart for this event. Here it is cast with Regiomontanus houses.
Some scientists regarded this radio signal as coming from an extraterrestrial source, perhaps sent by an alien civilization to communicate with humans on Earth. Other scientists were skeptical of viewing the “Wow! Signal” as evidence of an extraterrestrial intelligence and believed it to be a natural phenomenon whose origin we had not yet fathomed.
In 2004, astrophysicist Abel Mendez published a paper that offered a plausible natural explanation of the “Wow! Signal,” namely that it could have been caused by a transient astrophysical phenomenon. The Mendez hypothesis (2024) suggests that the “Wow! Signal” wasn’t a message from aliens, but rather a rare, natural “cosmic laser” event. He hypothesized that the source of the radio wave was a massive cloud of hydrogen gas somewhere in outer space and the trigger, a sudden, intense burst of energy from a distant star that shot through that hydrogen cloud. This scenario would result in a burst that caused the hydrogen atoms to release all their energy at once in a process called superradiance. This momentarily turned the hydrogen cloud into a giant natural amplifier, creating the powerful “Wow! Signal” detected on Earth in 1977.
In other words, Mendez believes that the 1977 signal was a one-time astrophysical fluke in which a hydrogen cloud was “zapped” by a passing star, making a natural radio signal look like an intentional broadcast. According to Occam’s Razor, the Mendez hypothesis is a more likely explanation than positing radio signals beamed to Earth by extraterrestrial scientists from a distant alien civilization. Mendez assumes that a known natural phenomenon (a hydrogen cloud) interacted with a known energetic object (a magnetar) in a rare but scientifically possible way (superradiance), relying entirely on existing laws of physics and objects we already know exist in the universe.
What can astrology add to the “Wow!” discussion? William Lilly, in his 1647 text Christian Astrology, pages 192-194, explained a method to evaluate whether a report or rumor was true or false. We can regard the chart for the detection of the “Wow! Signal” as a horary chart that poses the question, “Did this signal really come to Earth from an intelligent extraterrestrial creature far off in space?”
“Boy, are these human dumb! They can’t tell the difference between a superradiance and an intelligently beamed radio signal from our planet. We were foolish to assume there was intelligent life on Earth!”
Lilly’s Method:
If he found the Moon in the 1st, 10th, 11th, or 3rd house, separated by a benevolent aspect to any planet and applying by sextile, trine, or conjunction to the Asc-ruler, the rumor was true. In this chart, the Moon lies in the 5th house, so the rule is not applicable.
Check the Asc-ruler, the Moon, and the Dispositor of the Moon. If any of them occupies an angular or succedent house and a fixed sign, or favorably apply to aspect the Benefics or the Sun, then the rumor is true. Here Asc-ruler is Venus in Cardinal Cancer in the cadent 3rd, Moon’s dispositor is Mercury in Mutable Virgo in the cadent 6th, and the Moon lies in Mutable Virgo in the succedent 5th. None of these conditions apply in this chart, suggesting the rumor is false.
Do Venus, the Moon, or Mercury favorably apply to aspect the Benefics or the Sun? The Moon’s next aspect is a sextile to Venus. Mercury is separating from a sextile to Venus and will next apply to square Mars. This is a mixed testimony.
“Rumors are for the most part true when the Angles of the Figure are of fixed signs, … and the Moon and Mercury in fixed signs, separating from the Infortunes, and applying to a fortunate planet, placed in any Angle.” In this chart the horizon lies in fixed signs, but the meridian in Cardinal signs. The Angles start in fixed signs but culminate (and anti-culminate) is rapidly change cardinal/movable signs, suggesting that the rumor may initially appear fixed and true but will eventually be regarded as false.
The Moon and Mercury are in Mutable signs. Neither is separating from an Infortune. Moon is applying to sextile Venus but Mercury is applying to square Mars. This is a mixed testimony.
If we allow “modern” planets, the Moon’s next aspect is a partile sextile to Uranus, followed by a square to Neptune (deception) Rx in the 8th house. This configuration may indicate the highly unusual nature of the “Wow! Signal,” followed by a misunderstanding of its true nature.
On balance, the weight of the astrological testimony supports the conclusion that the “Wow! Signal” is not of extraterrestrial intelligent origin but is more likely an unusual natural phenomenon.