A Beacon in the Galaxy: Scientists Update Humanity’s Message to Aliens
AnonTechie writes:
The new message is really cool, but we need to have a serious discussion about whether we should be trying to contact extraterrestrials.
An international team of scientists has formulated an updated, binary-coded message that could eventually be transmitted to aliens in our galaxy. It's jam-packed with details, including the chemical makeup of humans, a map of Earth, and even our precise location in the Milky Way. What could possibly go wrong?
The Beacon in the Galaxy (BITG) message, as it's called, is an update to the Arecibo message of 1974. Indeed, it's been nearly 50 years since science popularizer Carl Sagan and SETI pioneer Frank Drake crafted their famous message to extraterrestrials, so an update makes a lot of sense, given the many advancements in digital technology since that time. A paper describing the new message was recently uploaded to the arXiv, and it's currently awaiting peer review.
[Also Covered By]: VICE, ScienceDaily
Should we broadcast such messages or not ? What do you think ?
Journal Reference:
Jonathan H. Jiang, Hanjie Li, Matthew Chong, et al. A Beacon in the Galaxy: Updated Arecibo Message for Potential FAST and SETI Projects, Galaxies (DOI: 10.3390/galaxies10020055)
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