Tag Archive for 'Hello From Earth'

Human Messages Flung Into Space

april published on February 8, 2010 in zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Hey SuperForest!

impression1An artist’s impression of Gliese 581d, of the constellation Libra.

Wowser! Have you guys heard of Gliese 581d? It’s a planet outside our Solar System which may support life! Yes, life! Last August, Hello From Earth collected messages from us earthlings. These messages were then exported as a text file and sent to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where they were encoded into binary, then packaged and tested before being transmitted using a 70-metre main antenna (see below) at midday on 28 August 2009. Woah!

antenna1The 70-metre main antenna, known as DSS43, of the NASA/CSIRO Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla, in Australia, which transmitted the messages.

Gliese 581d is 20.3 light-years away, so the counter below measures how long it will take the messages to reach their destination. This means the messages are somewhere in space, propelled outwards by the giant antenna and still at the beginning of a lengthy journey. And I thought 8 hours on an airplane was painful.

hifromearth

Here are some of the messages currently on their way to Gliese 581d:

“If you know the meaning of life, please send it to us. If not, let’s celebrate together anyway! Thanks in advance, from a curious carbon-based life form!” Monica Echagüen

“Hello Neighbour, Please don’t consider these messages as alien-spam! Thanks, Lonely Earth” Timothy

“Hi. We come from a planet called Earth. I hope you will hear our message of peace and friendship and answer us. It would be nice to know that we are not alone.” Antara Varma

“I wonder if my brains are bigger than your brains.” Zac

“My greatest hope for the people of earth is to have the chance to meet and love our siblings from other worlds in this most amazing universe.” Rob Hampton
“Our observations indicate that your planetary system is a low-mass star orbited by at least four planets, can you confirm?” Professor Penny Sackett
Oh, yes.  The truth is out there,
April