Arecibo letter fifty years later
By Danny Robb | Published: 2024-11-26 18:00:00 | Source: Hard Science – Big Think
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On November 16, 1974, a group of scientists sent a message to the stars, hoping someone there would listen. They used the 1,000-foot Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico, which was built a decade earlier. Today, the Arecibo message is still on its way to the star cluster Messier 13, and It will take tens of thousands of years to get there. Why did the scientists send him?
In the 1975 issue of American ScientificAstronomers Frank Drake and Carl Sagan explain this Arecibo’s message was symbolic, proof that a radio message could be sent across the galaxy. It was the beginning of a serious discussion about the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence.
They conveyed the image in binary numbers, as a series of ones and zeros representing white squares and black squares. When grouped together, they form a blocky image. The letter begins with scientific numbers and formulas, followed by images of the DNA double helix, a human figure, our solar system, and the Arecibo telescope itself.
For Drake and Sagan, Arecibo’s message had implications for age-old questions about our place in the universe. “Today, for the first time in history, (these questions) have entered the realm of experimental science,” they wrote.
They describe developments in astronomy and biochemistry that indicated the serious possibility of extraterrestrial life. Emerging work on exoplanets has shown that planets may be common in the galaxy. Scientists were investigating the origin of life and began searching for evidence of it Life on Mars. Drake and Sagan argue that the next logical step is research Life outside our solar system.
To astronomers, the project seemed fairly practical and straightforward. They describe how radio is “the quickest and also the cheapest way” to send or receive messages over such long distances. Understanding radio astronomy places constraints on the best frequencies that can be used for such a message.
Drake and Sagan wrote that “it seems to us that it is quite possible that one-way radio messages can be sent to Earth at this moment by radio transmitters on planets orbiting other stars.” They argue that we should listen. They describe the Cyclops project, which involved building “an array of 1,500 radio antennas each 100 meters in diameter.”
Their arguments had a long-term impact. Today, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is an active project, with the SETI Institute at the forefront. While the giant never materialized, exoplanet astronomers still hold it dear Discover more planets outside our solar systemAnd scientists use it Radio telescopes To search for artificial radio signals.
Drake and Sagan explain that the Arecibo message is not the only message we sent: our radio and television broadcasts sent a bubble of electromagnetic signals into space.
“Its spherical wavefront,” they write, “expands like a ripple from turbulence in a pool of water and inadvertently carries the news that humans have achieved the ability to speak among the stars, enveloping about 20 new stars each year.”
this condition appeared on JSTOR DailyWhere news meets its scientific counterpart.
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