lspencer534
10-23-2011, 9:53am
It's roughly the 50th anniversary of the search for extraterrestrial life. Here are some of the radio messages we've sent to the stars:
1974: Arecibo message
The first message to be transmitted in the hope of contacting an alien civilisation was quite short, containing just 1679 "bits" of information. This figure was used deliberately: it is the product of two prime numbers, 23 and 73, and if the message is displayed as a 23-by-73 grid it shows a series of simple pictures.
The message was transmitted by the Arecibo radio telescope. It was sent, just once, to the globular cluster M13, where it should arrive in the year 26,974.
1986: Poetica Vaginal
Joe Davis is an artist and a research affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the mid-1980s, he became concerned that no image of humans had been sent into space representing the details of human genitals or reproduction.
So he led a project to transmit the sounds of vaginal contractions towards neighbouring star systems. To do so, he recorded the vaginal contractions of ballet dancers.
The messages were to be sent from MIT's Millstone Hill Radar to Epsilon Eridani, Tau Ceti and two other stars. However, only a few minutes of footage was transmitted before the US air force, which had jurisdiction over the facility, shut the project down.
Nevertheless, the vaginal sounds that were sent will have reached Epsilon Eridani in 1996 and Tau Ceti in 1998. It is unclear what sort of reply we should expect.
1999: Cosmic Call 1
The Cosmic Call messages used the Interstellar Rosetta Stone developed by researchers Yvan Dutil and Stéphane Dumas (PDF). It was based on mathematical and scientific concepts that are thought to be universal, in the hope that any alien who intercepted the messages would understand them. It was followed by short text messages.
The messages were sent using the RT-70 Radio Astronomical Telescope in the Ukraine.
2001: Teen-Age Message
Alexander Zaitsev, a radio engineer at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and part of the team behind the Cosmic Call messages, was also responsible for this endeavour, in which a group of Russian teenagers sent a message into space.
It used the same transmitter as the Cosmic Call messages, but included analogue information, most notably a concert of electronic music played on the once-revolutionary instrument called the theremin.
The message was sent to six stars, including 47 Ursae Majoris, the first star to be found to have a solar system similar to ours, where any inhabitants will be able to listen to the concert in 2047.
2003: Cosmic Call 2
Four years after it was first transmitted, the Interstellar Rosetta Stone was sent out again, to another five stars. This time, the message included photos and other multimedia files.
Both sets of messages were funded by a company called Team Encounter, which also planned to launch a spacecraft equipped with a solar sail. This would have carried a payload of hair samples, photographs and other items into deep space. However, the company seems to have folded, and the launch never took place.
2005: Craigslist
For the first time, a website was beamed into space. The website in question was the classified listings service Craigslist.
The site was transmitted by a company called the Deep Space Communications Network, which specialises in beaming messages from members of the public into space. It sends its messages into open space, rather than to specific stars, so it is unlikely anybody will pick them up.
2008: Across the Universe
The Beatles song Across the Universe was sent out by NASA in February 2008, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the agency's founding.
The message was aimed at Polaris, the Pole Star, and should arrive there in 2439. However, Zaitsev criticised the message, noting defects in the method of transmission and also that Polaris is a supergiant star that probably cannot support life.
2008: A Message from Earth
Not content with two Cosmic Calls and a Teen-Age Message, Zaitsev set up a new project called A Message from Earth. This sent out 501 messages selected by a competition on the social networking site Bebo.
As well as half a million members of the public, various celebrities suggested messages, including The X-Files actress Gillian Anderson and the pop band McFly. All these people are now effectively ambassadors for the human race.
Earth calling: A short history of radio messages to ET - space - 20 January 2010 - New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18417-earth-calling-a-short-history-of-radio-messages-to-et.html)
1974: Arecibo message
The first message to be transmitted in the hope of contacting an alien civilisation was quite short, containing just 1679 "bits" of information. This figure was used deliberately: it is the product of two prime numbers, 23 and 73, and if the message is displayed as a 23-by-73 grid it shows a series of simple pictures.
The message was transmitted by the Arecibo radio telescope. It was sent, just once, to the globular cluster M13, where it should arrive in the year 26,974.
1986: Poetica Vaginal
Joe Davis is an artist and a research affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the mid-1980s, he became concerned that no image of humans had been sent into space representing the details of human genitals or reproduction.
So he led a project to transmit the sounds of vaginal contractions towards neighbouring star systems. To do so, he recorded the vaginal contractions of ballet dancers.
The messages were to be sent from MIT's Millstone Hill Radar to Epsilon Eridani, Tau Ceti and two other stars. However, only a few minutes of footage was transmitted before the US air force, which had jurisdiction over the facility, shut the project down.
Nevertheless, the vaginal sounds that were sent will have reached Epsilon Eridani in 1996 and Tau Ceti in 1998. It is unclear what sort of reply we should expect.
1999: Cosmic Call 1
The Cosmic Call messages used the Interstellar Rosetta Stone developed by researchers Yvan Dutil and Stéphane Dumas (PDF). It was based on mathematical and scientific concepts that are thought to be universal, in the hope that any alien who intercepted the messages would understand them. It was followed by short text messages.
The messages were sent using the RT-70 Radio Astronomical Telescope in the Ukraine.
2001: Teen-Age Message
Alexander Zaitsev, a radio engineer at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and part of the team behind the Cosmic Call messages, was also responsible for this endeavour, in which a group of Russian teenagers sent a message into space.
It used the same transmitter as the Cosmic Call messages, but included analogue information, most notably a concert of electronic music played on the once-revolutionary instrument called the theremin.
The message was sent to six stars, including 47 Ursae Majoris, the first star to be found to have a solar system similar to ours, where any inhabitants will be able to listen to the concert in 2047.
2003: Cosmic Call 2
Four years after it was first transmitted, the Interstellar Rosetta Stone was sent out again, to another five stars. This time, the message included photos and other multimedia files.
Both sets of messages were funded by a company called Team Encounter, which also planned to launch a spacecraft equipped with a solar sail. This would have carried a payload of hair samples, photographs and other items into deep space. However, the company seems to have folded, and the launch never took place.
2005: Craigslist
For the first time, a website was beamed into space. The website in question was the classified listings service Craigslist.
The site was transmitted by a company called the Deep Space Communications Network, which specialises in beaming messages from members of the public into space. It sends its messages into open space, rather than to specific stars, so it is unlikely anybody will pick them up.
2008: Across the Universe
The Beatles song Across the Universe was sent out by NASA in February 2008, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the agency's founding.
The message was aimed at Polaris, the Pole Star, and should arrive there in 2439. However, Zaitsev criticised the message, noting defects in the method of transmission and also that Polaris is a supergiant star that probably cannot support life.
2008: A Message from Earth
Not content with two Cosmic Calls and a Teen-Age Message, Zaitsev set up a new project called A Message from Earth. This sent out 501 messages selected by a competition on the social networking site Bebo.
As well as half a million members of the public, various celebrities suggested messages, including The X-Files actress Gillian Anderson and the pop band McFly. All these people are now effectively ambassadors for the human race.
Earth calling: A short history of radio messages to ET - space - 20 January 2010 - New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18417-earth-calling-a-short-history-of-radio-messages-to-et.html)