Nearly half a century after the Arecibo message, two international teams of astronomers are planning new attempts at alien communication. This ever-expanding bubble of earthly babble has already reached millions of stars.īut there is a big difference between a focused blast of radio waves from a giant telescope and diffuse leakage - the weak signal from a show like ‘I Love Lucy’ fades below the hum of radiation left over from the Big Bang soon after it leaves the Solar System. In addition to these purposeful attempts at sending a message to aliens, wayward signals from television and radio broadcasts have been leaking into space for nearly a century. Since M13 is 25,000 light-years away, you shouldn’t hold your breath for a reply. The series of 1s and 0s was designed to convey simple information about humanity and biology and was sent toward the globular cluster Messier 13 (M13). These spacecraft - as well as their twins, Pioneer 11 and Voyager 2 - have now all left the Solar System.īut in the immensity of space, the odds that these or any other physical objects will be found are fantastically minuscule.Įlectromagnetic radiation is a much more effective beacon.Īstronomers beamed the first radio message designed for alien ears from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in 1974. In 1977, NASA followed this up with the famous Golden Record attached to the Voyager 1 spacecraft. In 1972, NASA launched the Pioneer 10 spacecraft toward Jupiter carrying a plaque with a line drawing of a man and a woman and symbols to show where the craft originated. But some people question whether it is wise to do this at all.Įarly attempts to contact life off Earth were quixotic messages in a bottle. These efforts are like building a big bonfire in the woods and hoping someone finds you. In the coming months, two teams of astronomers are going to send messages into space in an attempt to communicate with any intelligent aliens who may be out there listening. Astronomers hope to send a message toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.
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