NASA Scientists will Send Interstellar Radio Messages to Deep Space to Contact Aliens

After the Arecibo message of 1974, some NASA scientists want to send another message into deep space in hopes of being picked and understood by alien receivers. The messaging form, named “Beacon in the Galaxy (BITG) Message”, can be said to be an updated version of the Arecibo message.

Arecibo message is an interstellar radio message carrying basic information about humanity and Earth that was sent to globular star cluster M13 (25,000 light-years from Earth) about 48 years back. Since the message was sent from the Arecibo Laboratory on the island of Puerto Rico, it got the name Arecibo Message.

The message written by Dr. Frank Drake and sent using frequency modulated radio waves contains 1,679 bits of data within the binary form, which can be seen as an image after decoding.

Below’s the decoded image-

A human figure can be easily identified in this image, but along with it the image also contains Human DNA and an illustration of our solar system.

But according to some experts, the message can be very difficult to decode for any alien species.

In the journal submitted in the open-access repository arxiv.org, the team of NASA scientists has stated that the BITG Message will contain far more information than the Arecibo message.

Also Read: NASA Scientists Confirm Finding Exoplanets Outside The Solar System

“The proposed message will conclude with basic mathematical & physical concepts, the Solar System’s time-stamped position in the Milky Way relative to known globular clusters, digitized depictions of the Solar System & Earth’s surface, digitized images of the human form, and the invitation for any receiving bits of intelligence to respond,” wrote Jonathon H Jiang, a scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Unlike the Arecibo message, the BITG message will literally target the Milkyway galaxy region, which is most likely to contain intelligent life.

What did Stephen Hawking say about contacting aliens?

Famous British physicist Stephen Hawking had earlier warned people about aliens in 2017. Hawking advised scientists not to contact aliens. He feared that one day aliens would take over this earth by killing humans. He cautioned against announcing the presence of humans to any alien civilization, especially a civilization that is more technologically advanced than humans.

Hawking said, “Our contact with any more advanced civilization may be similar to the time when Native Americans first saw Christopher Columbus.”

Stephen wanted humans to keep their distance from aliens. According to him, aliens can become a threat to humans.