Let's build a beacon to tell aliens who we were

The New Scientist ^ | 02 December 2011 | Chris Wilson

[Daffynition]

Somewhere in the cosmos, 36 light years away from us in the direction of the Hercules constellation, a series of electromagnetic waves stretching across 30 million miles of space carries a message from Earth. Each of the 1,679 signals it contains falls in one of two frequencies – an FM signal that translates to a bunch of ones and zeroes.

This message originated in 1974, when it was broadcast from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to commemorate the facility's renovation. The authors of the message, Carl Sagan and SETI founder Frank Drake, hoped that any aliens who happened to receive it might notice that 1,679 is the product of two prime numbers, 23 and 73, and if you arrange all the zeroes and ones in a grid of 23 columns and 73 rows, you get a series of simple, ASCII-like pictures, including a double helix and a crude image of a person. Whether or not an alien civilization could crack the code, they would at least notice something funny about these FM signals. They're 10 million times stronger than the background noise from our sun.

[IamCenny]

May need to get them here first, take their stuff, and then apply it to our technological understanding.

[GOPJ]

I share the concern of Stephen Hawking that we maybe should not advertise who we are and where we are at least someone picking up those signals might come visiting with sinister intent. Better that we just listen first.

Hawking was right on this one...

[DannyTN]

Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated

[Tallguy]

I’ve heard that Hitler made an early TV broadcast, and that is probably the earliest radio signal to depart the earth. Then again that was repeated in a Jodie Foster movie, so it might just be Hollywood BS.

[GeronL]

Yep, lets tell the universe that we are a planet full of walking meat and easy pickings.

Sounds like a recipe for (their) dinner.

[Daffynition]

You have a good point!

[Daffynition]

Did you see this news photo of the Hill being groped by an alien in Myanmar?

[GeronL]

Somewhere along the way those radio transmissions have scattered to the point of not being able to noticed I am sure.

[GeronL]

You are borg?

[GeronL]

I’ve heard that Hitler made an early TV broadcast, and that is probably the earliest radio signal to depart the earth

Radio was around for decades before TV I think, so probably not the earliest radio signal.

;)

[samtheman]

It might be true.

Certainly Hitler and FDR were the first big users of high-powered radio signals to broadcast their voices out to their respective citizens.

I would guess that the FDR broadcasts were more watts than the Hitler ones... but that’s just a guess.

I never looked it up.

[Daffynition]

[Vermont Lt]

And lets just put a model of our DNA out there, so when “they” design the weapon to kill us they won’t have any questions of whether it works or not.

How about we fix our own problems first, before we start signaling to whatever is out there.

We will have to deal with that stuff sooner or later anyway.

[Tallguy]

Radio was around for decades before TV I think, so probably not the earliest radio signal.

Early broadcast radio was AM. I think AM transmissions just sort of rattle around the ionosphere.

[frogjerk]

North Korea is very green - /gore

[GingisK]

It seems that the NSA has already officially announced contact with ETs. There are 29 SETI signals that carry messages; and, twenty nine have been partially decoded:

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/ufo/key_to_et_messages.pdf

NSA Signal Intercept

[THE_RAIDER]

Illegal aliens I know they like bacon and the smell of bacon in the morning, OHH my bad beacon “Never Mind”.

[Daffynition]

Very cool! Decoded it says: *Do want fries with that?*

[Daffynition]

[GeronL]

do they?

That probably explains some of the things I used to pick up late at night....