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Want to send a message to aliens? Here's your chance
21 Nov 2018
It has been 44 years since the Arecibo Message - a radio message beamed to space to draw the attention of any intelligent aliens - was sent, and scientists have deemed that it's time it gets updated.
However, the contents of the new message will not simply be left to scientists, and you too can participate.
Interested? Well, here's how you can contribute.
How you can craft a message for aliens
Basics
On November 16, the Arecibo Observatory announced that the world could contribute to the contents of the new Arecibo Message, and announced a competition for the same.
Teams of 10 students, from kindergarten through college, along with a mentor (teacher/professor/scientists) can compete to contribute to the new message to be sent to outer space.
However, registering isn't as simple as sending an email.
How to register for the new Arecibo Message Global Challenge
Registration
To register for the challenge, teams will have first have to solve riddles that will appear on the Arecibo website.
These riddles and challenges will range from learning about space, decoding codes, and other puzzles that will test participating teams' intellectual prowess.
The teams which will be able to solve these puzzles will be selected.
The first riddle will be released on December 16.
How the selected teams can contribute to the new message
New message
Teams which are able to solve all the riddles and challenges, will be shortlisted to submit their designs and proposals for the new Arecibo Message.
These designs and/or proposals have to be submitted within a nine month window from the time of declaration of results of the challenge.
The winning team of the new Arecibo Message challenge will be announced in November 2019, during the Arecibo Observatory Week.
A brief history of the Arecibo Message
Arecibo Message
Now that we've walked you through the competition, here's some information on what the original Arecibo Message was all about.
The 1974 Arecibo Message was written by legendary cosmologist and science popularizer Carl Sagan, and astrophysicist Frank Drake, known for Drake's equation that calculates the probability of finding intelligent life outside Earth.
In essence, the Arecibo Message was meant to inform intelligent aliens about humanity.
The contents of the 1974 Arecibo Message
Contents
The Arecibo Message was written in binary and contained significant information pertaining to human existence.
The message contained detailed information about the structure and makeup of our DNA, and a stick figure of a human being.
Further, it contained information about our average height, population, the solar system, and our place in it.
It also contained information about the Arecibo radio telescope used to send the message.
The purpose of the Arecibo Message wasn't about contacting aliens
Contact?
Interestingly, however, the Arecibo Message wasn't sent with the hopes of actually contacting aliens - the message was beamed to the globular star cluster M13, some 25,000 light years away.
This essentially means that the message will take 25,000 years to reach its destination, and even if aliens find it and reply to it, the reply will take another 25,000 years to reach Earth.
What the actual purpose of the Arecibo Message is
Purpose
Since 50,000 years isn't a time scale to wait for a reply, the message had another purpose.
First and foremost, it was a demonstration of the technological capability of human beings, and secondly, it was meant to promote public interest in astronomy, which remains an out-of-reach subject for most.
The new Arecibo Message has a similar purpose, except that it'll be updated to include our progress in the 44 years that followed.
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