The signal that never came back

1977. Leafing through a computer printout, an astronomer circles six characters and writes Wow! beside them. The signal never came back. Work out what we know.

5 clues, no sign-in

Each answer pins a clue to the board. Right first time is green; right after a hint is yellow.

Solve another case

The girls who photographed fairiesToday1917. Two English cousins produce photographs of themselves with fairies by a stream. A few years later a famous writer believes them and tells the world. Find out what the fairies really were.
The ship without her crewDecember 1872. A ship is found in the middle of the Atlantic, and nobody who should be aboard is there. Sort the real clues from the legend.
The man in the iceSeptember 1991. A body emerges from an Alpine glacier, and nobody yet knows how long it has lain there. Follow the clues to his last day.
The unreadable bookA book filled with an unknown script and drawings of plants. Follow the hands it passed through and the signature erased from its first page.
The blast that felled a forestThe morning of 30 June 1908. Something exploded over Siberia, and a whole forest went down. Narrow down what it was.
The boy from nowhereMay 1828. A youth carrying letters wanders the streets of Nuremberg. He says he grew up alone in a dark room. Narrow down who he was.