快猫短视频s have designed an updated message to beam across the galaxy in the hope of striking up conversation with an alien civilisation. The team behind the plan says that sending the rules of chess and starting a game would be a logical next step if we receive a reply 鈥� but communicating a move in the game would take tens or hundreds of thousands of years due to the vast distances involved.
There are many active projects searching for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), but there have also been some attempts to message one, even leading to the creation of a non-profit organisation called聽Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI).
For instance, in 1974, the Arecibo radio telescope sent a 1679 bit message towards globular star cluster M13 which sits 25,000 light years from Earth. Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft have also carried discs with information about humanity outside our solar system.
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at NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who co-authored the new Beacon in the Galaxy (BITG) message, says there was nothing wrong with previous attempts but we now have the technology to provide more detail.
BITG includes Earth鈥檚 location within the galaxy, relative to clusters of stars, as well as information on the time the message was sent relative to the birth of the universe. In all, the message contains 204,000 bits 鈥� more than 121 times as much data as the Arecibo transmission.
The team suggests that aiming the message at a star cluster between 2 and 6 parsecs from the centre of the Milky Way would give the best chance of a reply, and suggest that China鈥檚 500-metre radio telescope would be the ideal transmitter. Jiang says there are no immediate plans to send the message, but that the team hopes the proposal will encourage global discussion about how we eventually reveal ourselves to any galactic neighbours.
鈥淚n recent years, we have found thousands of exoplanets, compared to 1974 when we did not know if there were planets outside our solar system,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e now know that most stars host planets, and that planets that could host technological life should be reasonably common such that there should be many potential 鈥榟ome鈥� planets in our galaxy.鈥�
Philip Rosen, a retired engineer from the energy industry and co-author of the paper, says that if we receive a reply it might be a logical next step to send the rules of chess and begin a game, which could 鈥減rovide insights into thought processes of logic, strategy and planning鈥� of the civilisation. 鈥淓stablishing such a common ground of understanding would facilitate more detailed communications,鈥� he says.
at the University of Oxford says that previous attempts to message alien civilisations have been few and far between because of the 鈥済iggle factor鈥� around the idea in scientific circles, technical challenges in sending a strong enough signal and also because of 鈥渧igorous debate鈥� about whether it鈥檚 wise to do so.
鈥淨uite often people bring up this idea about what happened when various advanced cultures met less advanced cultures,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ome people think that it鈥檚 really risky to say where we are because that gives an address to where to send the war fleet.鈥�
While he believes the risk is negligible, he does say it would be wise for humanity to 鈥渂ecome better at making joint decisions as an entire species鈥� before attempting galactic communication.
at METI believes the message has merit, but that a variety of transmissions using different concepts should be sent, because some approaches may prove impenetrable for an alien species.
鈥淲hen we see a picture of the surface of the Earth, the one that鈥檚 included in this message is a two dimensional projection of a three dimensional surface,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o I think we need to be aware that even the things that seem to us clearly universal are maybe not. We really need to get over this idea that we can send a foolproof message.鈥�
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