We’ve sent messages to other stars before: Meet the Arecibo Telescope Message
This one is my favorite.
Sent to the supercluster of stars Messier 13 in 1974, the Arecibo Telescope used frequency modulated radio waves — waves that encode information by changing the frequency of the wave — to send the following “image” of information.
The image contains the following information:
1. Numbers, 1 to 10. (White)
2. Information about the building blocks of DNA (Purple)
3. Formulas for the nucleotides in DNA (Green)
4. Number of nucleotides in the human genome and a view of the double helix (White and Blue)
5. Dimension of a human, a figure of a human, and population of Earth at the time (Blue & White, Red, and White respectively)
6. The Solar System, with Earth as the third dot raised (Yellow)
7. The Arecibo Telescope (Purple, White, and Blue)
Although the telescope message was more of a technological demonstration than a serious attempt to contact aliens, I think it represents the beauty of technology and information encoding. Perhaps one day, we can actually send and receive a message back from aliens.
Takeaways and Resources 🚀
Takeaway:
The Search for ET: Radio messages comprise the bulk of our pointed communications to extraterrestrial bodies, with messages like the Arecibo telescope able to deliver information across vast distances of the cosmos.
2 Resources
More info about the Arecibo Message: https://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/details/arecibo-message
Collapse of the Arecibo Telescope: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hopes-fade-for-resurrecting-puerto-ricos-famous-arecibo-telescope/
NASA Photo of the Day 🌔
The Arecibo Observatory was a renowned radio telescope located in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. It was one of the largest and most significant astronomical instruments in the world until its collapse in December 2020.
Daily Opportunity Drop 🌌
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