Experts plan to broadcast a radio message containing the location of the Earth in the depths of space, in the hope that one day it will be received and understood by Alienscalled the Beacon Message in the Galaxy (BITG), and is essentially an updated version of the famous Arecibo message, which was first sent in 1974 for the same purpose.
It was sent in a binary code before, of ones and zeros, which, once decoded, forms a visual graphic showing the shape of a human wand, our DNA and an image for our solar system.
BITG will also include a diagram of DNA, the solar system, and a male and female figure diagram, but it also contains a lot more information about math and basic science than Arecibo’s letter.
There will also be information about the most common elements on Earth, a map showing the current land masses on our planet, and a call to reply to the message.
While the prospect of contact with alien life may sound exciting, broadcasting our location in space runs counter to concerns expressed by the late physics professor Stephen Hawking that intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations might want to destroy us.
Professor Hawking has shown support for efforts to find extraterrestrials through listening, but cautioned against effective communication in the form of radio messages amid concerns that humanity’s behavior indicates that extraterrestrial life may not be friendly.
“If you look at history, you will find that contact between humans and less intelligent beings is often disastrous from their point of view, and the confrontations between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies were bad for the less advanced,” he said.
However, scientists suggest a possible future transmission from the 500-meter spherical aperture radio telescope in China and the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array in Northern California.
The Arecibo message was first broadcast on November 16, 1974, from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which was built in the 1960s with funds from the US Department of Defense amid a push to develop anti-ballistic missile defenses.
Its main purpose was to demonstrate the capabilities of the newly installed equipment in the upgraded radio telescope and was an attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence.