The periodic table & music from a festival highlighting climate change are among messages to be sent to a nearby star system, astronomers at Messaging ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (METI) said in a press release.
While the Search for Extra terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) patiently listens to signals in the sky looking for evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in universe, METI is taking a more proactive approach, wanting to direct messages to specific start-systems and look for possible response. In 2017, the organization beamed a radio-signal from the Norwegian city of Tromso, which also consisted of some music samples and basic geometry.
Reaching out to alien life
Five years later, the organization wants to send a message to the TRAPPIST-1 star system, which is about 39 light-years from Earth. The star system is made up of 7 planets, at least 3 of which are in the Goldilock Zone, an area around a star where liquid water is most likely to found & might potentially support life.
Achieving such goals requires powerful transmitters that can send those signals strong enough to travel those long distances. Therefore, METI astronomers will use the Goonhilly satellite earth station in Cornwall, UK.
To ensure that message is entirety received, it will-be sent out in 4 different phases of the same frequency. To distinguish that the signal is artificial, it will begin with a series of bursts that not found in natural occurring radio waves, New Scientist reported.
The message
In addition to the periodic table encoded in binary language, the message will also consist of a description of number counting used on Earth and will convey the description of the atomic structure.
This is being done to clarify in universal chemical terms the environmental crisis that’s upon us. To add a layer of redundancy to the data being sent, music samples are enclosed within the message. These include short clips from the Stihia Music Festival, held annually to draw attention to the shrinking of Aral Sea, once a thriving fishing destination that comparatively reduce-to trickle over the past six decades.
A special jury will decide which festival tracks will be added to the 15-second clips of “Beauty of the Earth”, an electronic music piece by Eduard Artemyev, and “Through the Asteroid Belt”, intended to be part of the original message. .
If the intelligent life in the TRAPPIST start system does receives the message and responds to it, the response will be received in about 80 years. In addition, METI plans to send a similar message to exoplanet K2-18b, about 124 light-years away. Earth, the press release added.
