The Elusive Wow: Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

by Robert H. Gray

"The Elusive Wow" tells the story of the Wow! signal — one of the most intriguing radio signals ever seen by searches for broadcasts from the stars. Author Robert Gray reports on the original detection and tells of his searches for the signal, showing examples of what searchers see with interstellar radios. In addition to telling the tale of the elusive signal, Gray surveys the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, also known as SETI—explaining why many scientists think Others might exist on other worlds and how we might find them. Gray's scientific work has appeared in journals such as Astrophysical Journal and Icarus, and in magazines like Sky & Telescope.

Genres: Science, Astronomy, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2011

Reviews

[Scott Kardel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Robert Gray's The Elusive Wow: Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. It looks first at THE only possible extraterrestrial radio signal, ever received, the so-called "Wow! Signal", which remains unexplained to this day, and then more deeply at issues related to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and surveys that have been performed. The book was written a decade ago, so it isn't the most current, but it is a good history of the field and specifically the follow-up observations that Gray made on the Wow!