Interstellar Messages
There are nine realized IRM projects:
- The Morse Message (1962)
- Arecibo message (1974), one transmission to Messier 13
- Cosmic Call 1 (1999), four transmissions to nearby Sun-like stars
- Teen Age Message (2001), six transmissions
- Cosmic Call 2 (2003), five transmissions
- A Message From Earth (2008), one transmission to Gliese 581
- Across the Universe (2008)
- Hello From Earth (HFE, 2009)
- Wow! Reply (2012), three transmissions to Hipparcos 34511, Hipparcos 33277 and Hipparcos 43587 in reply to the Wow! signal
The Across the Universe message and Hello From Earth are not always considered serious. The first of them was sent to Polaris, which is 431 light years distant from us and whose planetary system, even if it exists, may not be suited for life, because it is a supergiant star, spectral type F7Ib. In addition, the transmission rate was very high, about 128 kbit/s, for such moderate transmitter power (about 18 kW). The main defect of the "Hello From Earth" is an insufficient scientific and technical justification, since no famous SETI scientist made statements with validation of HFE's design. As it follows from : "After the final message was collected on Monday 24 August 2009, messages were exported as a text file and sent to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where they were encoded into binary, packaged and tested before transmission", but nobody explained why he hope that such encoded and packaged text will be understood and conceived by possible extraterrestrials.
Some use the term Active SETI Project, but Alexander Zaitsev, who was a scientific head of composing and transmissions of Cosmic Call 1999 & 2003, and Teen Age Message 2001, and a scientific consultant of A Message From Earth, emphasized that he considers above IRMs as the Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Projects.
These seven messages have targeted stars between 20 and 69 light-years from the Earth. The exception is the Arecibo message, which targeted globular cluster M13, approximately 24,000 light-years away. The first message to reach its destination will be A Message From Earth, which should reach Gliese 581 in Libra in 2029.
Read more about Interstellar Messages: Current Transmissions En Route
Famous quotes containing the word messages:
“Acknowledging separation feelings directly and sympathetically is the best way of coping with them. It is actually helpful to tell a toddler “I’ll miss you,” or “I will think of you during the day,” or “It is hard to say goodbye,” or “I can’t wait to see you at the end of the day.” These messages tell the child that he is important to the parent even when they are not together and that out of sight need not mean out of mind.”
—Alicia F. Lieberman (20th century)