Can you imagine how the world would react if it were known that humanity had received a message from an intelligent form of life outside our planet? Overwhelming logic tells us that we are not alone in the universehowever, So far, we have not had contact with extraterrestrials…that we know.
To know if humans would be able to understand what alien beings would want to tell us. in case of receiving a signal from outside the Earth was created A Sign in Spacean interdisciplinary project by multimedia artist Daniela de Paulis In collaboration with the SETI Institute, the European Space Agency (ESA)the Green Bank Observatory and INAF, the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics.
The project aimed transmit a simulated alien signal using an ESA spacecraft as ‘heavenly source’. The goal was to “involve the global community of search for extraterrestrial intelligenceprofessionals from different fields and the general public, in the reception, decoding and interpretation of the message.”
The European Space Agency has just confirmed that that message was deciphered. But the authors of such an achievement are not in a laboratory or a space observatory. Are a father and his daughter, Ken and Keli Chaffin.
The message was broadcast in May 2023 by an ESA satellite and three radio astronomy observatories on Earth intercepted it. Since then, the enigmatic signal sent from Mars had kept thousands of people intrigued until the Chaffin duo managed to solve it.
Last June, De Paulis received in his inbox the image that accompanies this news as solution to the cosmic puzzle.
What was the process of deciphering the alien message like?
The challenge was first to extract the message from the raw data of the radio signal and second to decode it. In just ten days, a community of 5,000 scientists citizens met on-line and managed to extract the signal. Deciphering it took a little longer.
After a year of simulations and many hours of analysisKen and Keli finally managed to interpret the signal. They discovered that it represented five amino acidsthe basic components of life on Earth, organized in patterns that suggested cell formation.
Now, the conversation is still open in the community on-line of A Sign in Spacewhere enthusiasts from around the world share their own interpretations of the mysterious message.
Although fictitious, this initiative has been a good drill to explore how humanity might respond to a real message from another civilization.
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