- In a few weeks' time mankind will send
out its first detailed radio message into the cosmos, asking any aliens
who may receive it to get in touch.
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- It is part of a commercial project called
Encounter 2001. This company based in Houston, USA, is offering the public
the chance to send their own message into space for $30.
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- Not everyone thinks it is a good idea.
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- According the scientists involved in
listening for intelligent signals from outer space, called Seti (Search
for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), sending a message out into space is
almost certainly a fruitless exercise.
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- Dr Frank Stootman of Seti Australia,
says that it is not a message to aliens but to us. He adds that a reply
is very unlikely and certainly not within our lifetime. And, if an answer
does come, it will not be in English.
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- Chan Tysor of Encounter 2001 counters
this. "It's a statement, sending something of yourself away from the
Earth to travel in space forever. Whether it gets picked up by aliens or
not many people are excited by it."
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- The message
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- Before the individual messages are broadcast
an encrypted signal, based on logic and maths, will be sent.
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- Dr Yrvan Dutil, a scientist working for
the Canadian Government, is helping to design the cosmic message. He points
out that the only other signal deliberately sent into space in 1974 was
aimed at a group of stars that were unlikely to have planets.
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- Because this signal is aimed at a handful
of stars like our Sun he says that "for practical purposes this will
be our first detailed interstellar transmission."
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- He is still working on the message, to
be transmitted into space sometime in April by the Evpatoria radio telescope
in the Ukraine.
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- The message will consist of a series
of pages and will be repeated three times over a period of three hours.
The signal will be 100,000 times stronger than a TV broadcast.
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- Don't listen, talk
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- Listening for radio signals from alien
life in space is not new. There have been about 70 attempts over the past
40 years. So far no signals have been detected.
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- But transmitting a message into space
has been tried only once.
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- In 1974, the Arecibo radio telescope
sent a brief three-minute message towards the distant M13 stellar cluster.
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- It consisted of 1,679 pulses. When arranged
into a matrix, they became an image showing atoms, molecules, our solar
system and a representation of a human.
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- But the cosmic message being contemplated
this time will be much longer, 400,000 bits.
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- Starting with basic symbols it will use
logic to describe numbers and geometry. It then goes on to introduce concepts
such as atoms, planets and even DNA.
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- It has been constructed to minimize the
loss of information due to noise introduced into the signal during its
interstellar journey.
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- "If any aliens ever intercept this
message they will have mastered science so much of the first part of the
message, the part that deals with numbers and atoms, will be familiar to
them", says Dr Dutil.
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- "They can then go on and deduce
a few things about humans such as where we live, how big we are and how
many there are of us."
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- However, he does have some reservations
about sending the message. "I'm not comfortable about sending something
in space without a social debate."
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- Aimed at the stars
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- The message is aimed at stars from 51
to 71 light-years from Earth. They are all similar to our own Sun. They
lie in a region of the sky called the Summer Triangle.
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- As well as the encrypted message there
will be a series of greetings written by the general public. Anyone can
sign up to send up to 30 words for $30.
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- According to Chan Tysor, things people
have put on their cosmic message include their hopes for a more peaceful
future for mankind and other races in space. One person said that we have
made a mess of our planet so asked aliens to put off a visit for another
100,000 years.
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- Mr Tysor said that the signal was a kind
of monument, "It is a kind of immortality knowing that something you
wrote is beaming its way out of the solar system into the galaxy."
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- Questionable science
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- Many scientists do not think that broadcasting
messages to the stars is a good idea. Among them are many members of the
Setileague, a body that organises amateur searches for intelligent signals
from space using small radio dishes.
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- "Great entertainment, but questionable
science," said its executive director Dr H Paul Shuch.
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- It would be fun to beam personal greetings
into space, Mr Shuch concedes, but like a message in a bottle, the prospects
for successful contact are rather slim."
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- Carol Oliver of Seti Australia says that
while she has reservations about the message being sent into space she
hopes that it will inspire many to take an interest in Seti.
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- She adds that soon, because of a Seti
Australia initiative, hundreds of thousands of Australian schoolchildren
will be studying the search for life in space as part of a project to help
them find out about the universe and themselves.
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- But Dr Dutil is worried that the Encounter
2001 message will set a precedent, "After us zillions of people will
try to send a message into space."
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- Just imagine he says, "a weirdo
group could send what they want into space and this may put humanity into
trouble in the far future."
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