Whether there is life outside the Earth or not has been one of the most curious questions of humanity since ancient times, when people were first noticed that there were celestial bodies in the sky other than Earth. In order to definitively understand whether we are alone in the infinite universe, scientists continue their work without interruption.
One of these studies stands out as messages sent to space to show a possible living form in distant lands that there is another intelligent life form on the planet Earth. Now, scientists think it’s time to add a new one to these messages that have been sent many times before.
It will take thousands of years for the message to reach its destination
Scientists have said that they have prepared a new message for intelligent extraterrestrial beings that may be in space and are waiting for the necessary feedback to send the message. is reporting.
However, the technology required to send this message is not yet ready. Moreover, even when the message is sent, it will take thousands of years to reach its destination. In other words, no one expects to receive a return message from an extraterrestrial society anytime soon. But the researchers who prepared the memo hope their ideas will spark a dialogue about how to communicate with aliens, what to say, and how to immortalize humanity as a species.
Jonathan Jiang, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, said, “After many years, even if there’s no planet Earth left, it’s in a bottle in the cosmic ocean to say ‘Hey, we’re here. We want to send a message”.
Message contains information that will make it easier for aliens to understand humans
Jiang and his team for the 50th anniversary of the Arecibo message, the first high-powered attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life The message conceived by A.D. is actually based on earlier messages sent by humanity into space. In Arecibo, which was designed using binary code in 1974, information about humanity’s base 10 counting system, common important elements and a map of the solar system were included.
Similarly, the new message, which also uses binary code, includes basic math, physics, and biology definitions, including definitions of DNA, amino acids, and glucose, which aliens will need to understand humans. Also in the message are maps that give information about the structure and atmosphere of the Milky Way, the Solar System and the Earth itself.
On the other hand, the message is stated to be more advanced than previous messages in a few key ways. First of all, it is noteworthy that the map of Earth’s position in the Milky Way is more precise than the one in the Arecibo message. Jiang and his team note that they use globular star clusters to mark Earth’s location in the Milky Way so they can be easily seen because of their brightness.
However, a first-of-its-kind timestamp has been reportedly added to the message so that any alien who finds it can tell when the message was sent. At this point, we are faced with the question of how we can transfer time as we perceive it to an alien civilization that is likely to have very different measurement methods from the Earthlings.
According to message designer Qitian Jin of Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, the answer lies in the hydrogen atom. Neutral hydrogen found in interstellar gas can enter a high-energy state after collisions with other atoms or electrons. After about 10 million years, one of these high-energy hydrogen undergoes a transition back to a lower-energy state known as a spin-flip. It is this spin-flip transition that provides a convenient universal time unit for conveying how long after the Big Bang the message was sent.
However, Jin adds that it may be possible to send multiple messages with updated timestamps and information so that a theoretical alien civilization can learn more about Earth over time.
The message will be sent to a star region made up of planets thought to be habitable
Jiang said the newly proposed message will reach a ring of stars about 13,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way. says it will be sent. This region is thought to contain several habitable planets that exist in the habitable zones of their stars. On the matter, Jiang notes, “If aliens exist, they’re probably here.”
Also, the researchers hope to spark a conversation about what information to send to extraterrestrials and stimulate interest in listening to messages. Humans are already broadcasting radio, television and radar signals into space over an area of approximately 200 light years. This is not a very large area to look for extraterrestrial life; but the field continues to grow. Stuart Taylor, an astrophysicist at the SETI Institute who helped create the new message, points out that the impression given by humanity is not very good.
Stating that it is very important to send a positive message when we think that aliens will listen to us, Taylor states that their main hope is that an alien civilization advanced enough to reach the stars will be highly ‘cooperative’ and give Earthlings good advice on how to reconcile our differences. .
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