EXTRATERRESTRIAL EXPLORATION

Arecibo_message

                         In 1974, the most powerful interstellar radio message carrying simple, pictorial message (basic information) about humanity and Earth sent to globular star cluster M13 called Arecibo message so that the extra-terrestrial intelligence might receive and decipher it. For a single time the message was broadcast in space via frequency-modulated radio waves as a mark of upgrading or remodelling the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico on 16 November 1974.

                        

                         The broadcast was particularly powerful because it used Arecibo's megawatt transmitter attached to its 305-meter antenna .The message aimed at our putative cosmic companions in the globular star cluster M13 (some 25,000 light years) called as the Hercules Globular Cluster that was available in the sky at the time and place of the ceremony. Frank Drake, who was the creator of the Drake equation, wrote the message with help from Carl Sagan and others.

                           The message consisted of 1679 binary digits, approximately 210 bytes, transmitted at a frequency of 2380 MHz and modulated by shifting the frequency by 10 Hz and the emission was equivalent to a 20 trillion watt omnidirectional broadcast. The ‘ones’ and ‘zeros’ were transmitted by frequency shifting at the rate of 10 bits per second. The total broadcast was less than three minutes. Since 1679 is semi-prime in nature, i.e. the product of two primes 23 and 73. This suggests an image of 23 pixels wide and 73 pixels tall or 73 rows by 23 columns. (Dimension of Arecibo message)

Explanation (Part by Part)

 

1. Numbers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  9  10

----------------------

0 0 0 1 1 1 1 00 00 00

0 1 1 0 0 1 1 00 00 10

1 0 1 0 1 0 1 01 11 01

X X X X X X X X  X  X <-least significant digit marker(Beginning of each number)

 

2. DNA elements

H C N O P

1 6 7 8 15 (Atomic Numbers of Basic Elements of Life)

----------

0 0 0 1 1

0 1 1 0 1

0 1 1 0 1

1 0 1 0 1

X X X X X

3. Nucleotides

Deoxyribose (C5H7O)	Adenine (C5H4N5)	Thymine (C5H5N2O2)	Deoxyribose (C5H7O)
Phosphate (PO4)			Phosphate (PO4)
Deoxyribose (C5H7O)	Cytosine (C4H4N3O)	Guanine (C5H4N5O)	Deoxyribose (C5H7O)
Phosphate (PO4)			Phosphate (PO4)

 

4. Double helix

Vertical Bar(Centre) as number of Base Pairs in Human Genome

11111111 11110111 11111011 01011110 (binary)

= 4,294,441,822 (decimal) (now as high as 3.2 billion)

11

11

11

11

11

01

11

11

01

11

01

11

10

11

11

01

X

 

5. Humans

  ʌ             X011011

  |              111111

  |              110111

X0111            111011

  |              111111

  v              110000

1110 (binary) = 14 (decimal)

000011 111111 110111 111011 111111 110110 (binary)

= 4,292,853,750 (decimal)

                                Central Element is Human with an average Height of adult male- 1.764m (5ft 9.4in) as shown in left of the image. This corresponds to the horizontally written 14(binary) multiplied by the wavelength of the message (126 mm). Right side of image depicts Human Population size in 1974 as 4.3 billion (approximately).

6. Planets (Home Location)

                  Earth

Sun Mercury Venus       Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

           

                                           That time when message was transmitted Pluto considered as a planet but later reclassified as Dwarf Planet by IAU. Earth is shifted up in the image in order to inform about the Home Planet location.

7. Telescope

Bottom two rows:

     100101

<--- 111110X --->

100101 111110 (binary) = 2,430 (decimal)

                                 Last part represents the Arecibo radio telescope (Diameter: 2,430 multiplied by the wavelength of the message gives 306.18 m (1,004 ft. 6 in.)). The Big Letter ‘M’ is there in image in order to demonstrate that the curved line is a paraboloid mirror.

ONE INETERESTING LINK - https://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/details/arecibo-message

SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) INSTITUTE

Golden Records (The Sound of Earth)

                                   

                    Voyager Golden Records are two phonograph records that were included in both Voyager Spacecraft programme of 1977. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth for any intelligent extra-terrestrial life form who may find and understand them. The records are a sort of time capsule.

                     Carl Sagan said, "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space, but the launching of this 'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about life on this planet.

                     Voyager 1, moving at a speed of 38,000 mph (61,000 km/h), is currently 11.7 billion miles (18.8 billion kilometres) from Earth. Voyager 2 took a different route through the solar system and is now 9.5 billion miles (15.3 billion km) from home.

   ^{Sources- NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory}

Contents of Golden Record:-

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/

The Drake Equation

The equation (probabilistic argument) which was given by Dr. Frank Drake used to estimate the number of active, communicative, intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations in Cosmos. This 1961 equation identifies specific factors, which plays an important role in development of such civilizations, but there is no unique solution to this equation, as a generally accepted tool used by the scientific community to examine these factors, according to the radio astronomer of National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, Dr. Frank Drake and SETI institute (Image Source). Important link- https://www.seti.org/drake-equation-index

- By Arjun Bhattacharya