By 
November 16th, 2018
Over four decades ago, radio message shot to the stars is celebrated event. Credit: Google Doodles
Forty-four years ago today, a three-minute radio message broadcast from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico was aimed at a cluster of stars 25,000 light years away from Earth.
The message itself was devised by a team of researchers from Cornell University led by Frank Drake, astronomer and astrophysicist responsible for the Drake Equation – a way to estimate the number of planets hosting extraterrestrial life within the Milky Way galaxy.
Frank Drake with cosmic equation to gauge the presence of intelligent life in the cosmos. The Drake Equation identifies specific factors believed to play a role in the development of civilizations in our galaxy.
Credit: SETI Institute
Beamed outward from Arecibo, that communiqué to the cosmos – destination, the 300,000 stars in the constellation Hercules known as M13 – has now traveled 259 trillion miles, just a small fraction of the 146,965,638,531,210,240 or so miles to reach the final destination.
Whether or not aliens at the other end are all ears (or antennae) is arguable. What isn’t arguable is that, over the intervening decades, exoplanet detection is on the upswing, heightening expectations that a civilization “out there” may be on the listening end.
Credit: Arecibo Observatory, an NSF funded facility
New message
National Science Foundation-funded Arecibo Observatory organizers are seeking innovative ideas from global collaborative efforts … to inspire a new generation of space enthusiasts and define a New Arecibo Message.
The Arecibo Observatory is launching an online competition today on the 44th anniversary of the original Arecibo message. Organizers are seeking innovative ideas from global collaborative efforts of inter-generation, diverse and international teams of students to inspire a new generation of space enthusiasts and define the New Arecibo Message.
Online clues
But this will be no simple task.
In order to get started, teams of up to 10 students in grades kindergarten through college must decode various clues that will be released online.
Like a Chinese puzzle box, teams must learn about space science, break coded messages and solve brain-puzzles to qualify, get instructions, register and then submit their entries.
Arecibo is posting the first puzzle on its website and social media channels this December 16th.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Raising awareness
The main goal of this activity is to educate the youth on radio astronomy techniques and exoplanetary cutting-edge science, presenting the uniqueness of the Arecibo Observatory capability and raising the awareness of the possible risks involved on messaging unknown earthlings (through social medias) or extraterrestrial civilizations (through radio waves).
The Arecibo Observatory is operated by the University of Central Florida (UCF) in partnership with Sistema Ana G. Mendez Universidad Metropolitana and Yang Enterprises Inc. UCF and its partners took over management of the facility in April 2018.
For more information, go to:
Posted in Space News
