“If a person is lost in a remote area, they have two options. They can start looking for civilization, or you can easily be seen by lighting a fire or writing HELP in large letters“; thus begins Chris Impey’s article in The Conversation. Impey, who serves as Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, believes this same plan could work to find intelligent-type extraterrestrial life.
Until now, we humans have calculated an approximate 300 million possible habitable worlds in the Milky Way alone, our own galaxy. For this reason, many scientists they are quite confident that there is life beyond Earth, in some corner of the universe. That’s what the SETI institute has been doing for more than 70 years; try to search for signs of existence on another planet. Until now, however, scientists have only found the mystery called “The Great Silence” in their search for a developed civilization.
Where are they? Italian physicist Enrico Fermi posed this question in 1950, and it is now known as Fermi’s Paradox or The Great Silence. Fermi wondered: if there are other civilizations on other planets in our Milky Way; And if some have spread throughout the galaxy as both science fiction and scientists have conjectured, why haven’t we heard of them?
While SETI is dedicated to searching for signals in outer space, METI he is tired of waiting. Described as “the ‘reckless and irreversible’ project that could end humanity” by the outlet The confidentialActive SETI —also known as METI— It is an attempt by scientists to make the position of the Earth known to all possible inhabitants of our galaxy..
According to Chris Impey for The Conversation, in the coming months a group of astronomers will send messages into space. The reason? They hope to connect with aliens who are willing to listen. Impey describes these intentions as “building a fire in the woods waiting for someone to find you”; and he gets into the debate about whether this is a wise move or not.
The first attempts -failed- of the METI
The year was 1972 when the world saw the launch of the twin space probes, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. On both ships, The well-known Pioneer Plaque was attached, designed by astronomer Carl Sagan and Frank Drake. Linda Salzman Sagan was in charge of drawing them. In these plates we can see two human figures, one female and one male; and are based on the Greek sculptures and drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Likewise, we have on the left a bundle of lines that start from the same point. This center refers to the Sun, while the lines would be the most significant pulsars found in our solar system. Also, we have in binary numbers its pulse sequence. Thus, an attempt was made to represent our location in spacesomething that could be interpreted by another technologically advanced civilization.
In 1977, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft left Earth. Inside they contained a kind of ‘time capsule’, another attempt to communicate with other living species beyond our atmosphere. Both ships contained a 12-inch disc-shaped phonograph record made of copper., and covered with gold. The discs contained images and sounds of the terrestrial diversity, as well as of human culture.
Like the Pioneer plates, the Voyager disks included details that signaled our location in the space.
Although both attempts have already left the solar system, space is incredibly huge. Because of this, the chances of an advanced civilization finding an object floating in the middle of nowhere are “fantastically tiny,” Chris Impey describes in his article. Nevertheless, electromagnetic radiation is a much better method.
radio signals
Therefore, in 1974, from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico the first message designed exclusively for extraterrestrial ears was broadcast. Made up of binary numbers, they contained basic information about humanity and biology, and was sent in the direction of cluster M13. But there is a problem, M13 is 25,000 light years away, so if we get an answer, we will have to wait a long time to hear it.
In addition to these deliberate attempts to send a message to aliens, television and radio broadcast signals have been leaking into space for nearly a century. This ever-expanding terrestrial chattering bubble has already reached millions of stars. But there is a big difference between a concentrated burst of radio waves from a giant telescope and a diffuse leak: the faint signal from a program like “I Love Lucy“fades beneath the hum of radiation left over from the Big Bang shortly after leaving the solar system.
The Conversation
Now, almost 50 years after the message launched at the Arecibo Observatory, two new groups of astronomers have got down to work again. In their extraterrestrial communication attempts, the first group will use a giant radio telescope; however, the other will take a slightly different approach.
This first group will use the world’s largest radio telescope, located in China. The message is planned to be sent at some point in 2023, and this immense technological device 500 meters in diameter will be its origin. In this way, scientists will send encrypted messages in binary code of 1 and 0, containing information in digital format.
“The Lighthouse in the Galaxy” is the name given to this message. It includes prime numbers and math operations, the biochemistry of life, human forms, the location of the earth, and a timestamp. On this occasion, the recipient will be millions of stars near the center of the Milky Way, located at a distance of approximately 10,000 and 20,000 light years. Of course, the goal is much larger than the Arecibo attempt, but it will take us a long time to hear an answer, if there is one.
The second group, meanwhile, plans to send their message to a single star. Of course, with a much faster response possibility. It is expected that this coming October 4, a group from the Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station, located in England, broadcast your message to the star TRAPPIST-1.
Orbiting TRAPPIST-1 we find 7 planets, of which three are in the so-called “Goldilocks Zone”. This means that they are positioned in the necessary location to possibly contain liquids and potential extraterrestrial life. Furthermore, TRAPPIST-1 is only 39 light-years away, so it would take the team about 78 years to send the message and receive one back to Earth.
But who speaks for the Earth?
In the wake of these movements, some unavoidable ethical questions have arisen. For example, there is the so-called “Who speaks for the Earth?”, and it is that currently there is no consultation at the international level about the messages that should be included within these attempts. In fact, most decisions are made by a handful of scientists and interest groups.
But there are other more serious ones. Although it is the idea of setting fire to a forest to attract the attention of potential rescuers, you could also be in danger of attracting other types of threats.
Stephen Hawking warned, at the time, about the risks of contacting aliens with superior technology. As the physicist commented, these beings could be of a hostile temperament, and want to destroy humanity. However, other scientists believe that there is no serious risk, since if there are aliens with technology superior to ours, they probably already knew of our existence in the first place.
However, it seems that we will have to wait much longer to see the answers to all these questions. After all, so far we have not been able to prove the existence of basic life in another region of the universe, so the possibility of advanced extraterrestrial life is increasingly remote. But who knows, maybe in a few thousand years we may be surprised at what appears in the sky.