Between stations

We are here
Noise.

The dial never stops on a station. Hold it where the picture is clearest and it drifts away. In 1977 a radio telescope called Big Ear recorded a strong narrow signal for 72 seconds and an astronomer wrote "Wow!" beside it; it was never heard again. The same year two probes left Earth with a gold disc and a needle, for whoever might have one.

FIG. 8. Between stations. Images are NASA public domain: the Voyager Golden Record, "Pale Blue Dot" (Voyager 1, 1990), and the FAST radio telescope. The static is generated in code. The record's own audio has mixed rights, so it is evoked, never reused. The Wow! signal: Big Ear, Ohio State University, 15 August 1977 (details to be checked against the Big Ear printout before publication). Credits.