This is the result of some thinking today. Comments are always welcome.
Arecibo Message explained: How researchers sent the first
interstellar radio message
Chelsea Ritschel
The Independent
November 16 2018 marks
44 years since researchers sent humankind’s first interstellar radio message –
an achievement Google is celebrating with aGoogle Doodle.
The Arecibo
Message, sent from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in 1974, is a three-minute message of exactly
1,679 binary digits – which, if arranged in a specific way, can explain basic
information about humanity and earth to extraterrestrial beings.
Scientists sent the
message via frequency modulated radio waves to a cluster of stars 25,000 light
years away to demonstrate the power of the Arecibo radio telescope, which was the
largest and most powerful in the world at the time.
“It was a strictly
symbolic event, to show that we could do it,” Cornell University
professor of astronomy Donald Campbell recalled of the momentous event.
The event moved some
present to tears as researchers contemplated their own existence and knowledge
of planets and solar systems.
The hope is that, in
many thousands of years, it may reach another living being.
The actual message was
devised by a team of researchers from Cornell University
led by astronomer and astrophysicist Dr Frank Drake.
When received, the
message could be arranged in a grid 73 rows by 23 columns to form a pictograph
that represents facts about mathematics, human DNA, planet earth, and humans.
From top down, the
seven-part message can show the numbers one to 10, atomic numbers of elements
including hydrogen and oxygen, the formulas for the sugars and bases in the
nucleotides of DNA, a graphic of the DNA double helix structure, a figure of a
human and the population of earth at the time, a graph of the solar system, and
a graph of the telescope.
Since the Arecibo message was sent,
the message has travelled just 259 trillion miles – a fraction of its journey
to its intended destination, which will take roughly 25,000 years to complete.
That is 25,000
years for the message to reach its destination. And if –if- it reaches an intelligent life form and it is decided to
respond, which seems very unlikely that it will see the point, there is the
25,000 year wait for the reply. Now, personally, I think sending a message to
show off is pointless. I certainly do
not care when it gets to its final destination.
I won’t be alive and I think it is fair to say that no one alive today
will be!
Will Earth still be
here in 50,000 years? Will Humanity
still be here? Those are the two minor
questions because the main one is will any civilization exist in the area the
signal is heading? It was sent using the
blind-fold and dart method: imagine having on dart and you have to score a
bulls-eye, however, it is also decided that you have to wear a blindfold…and
turn your back to the board. If you hit
a bulls-eye it will be a miracle. If the
Arecibo signal
actually gets received by an advanced civilisation it would be akin to that
miraculous darts bulls-eye.
Arecibo Observatory, Puert
Rico photo ©JidoBG creative commons license
Rather like the Voyagers (1 and 2) their journeys.
Voyager 1 was
launched on Monday, 5th September, 1977. As I write this it is 41 years, 2 months, 13
days, 25 minutes and 48 seconds into its travels. It is now (at the time of writing –November
18th 2018) 144,70293392 AU (Astronomical Units) or 13,450, 974,240
miles from the Earth in what scientists call “interstellar space”. In 40,000
years it will encounter the AC+79 3888 star system which lies 17.6 light years
from Earth.
Voyager 2 was
launched on Saturday, 20th August, 1977 and is is the “Heliosheath”
some 11, 117, 165, 732 miles or 119, 59629202 AU from Earth. It is heading
toward the star Sirius and even travelling at 40,000 miles per hour it will not
reach there for 296,000 years.
Those are the time
scales and destinations for the Voyagers -if
they are not destroyed in some collision.
Planetary information from both was fantastic so why not just set them
to randomly float around the solar system.
I know there are a lot of problems because of age and so on but surely
someone must have thought it better to keep roaming our system than become a
piece of space litter?
Pioneer 10 visited
Saturn in 1976, Uranus in 1979 and on the 13th June, 1983 passed Neptune and became the first human-made object to leave
the proximity of the Solar System. Its
speed means that the final journey will take more time than the faster (in
relative terms) Voyagers. Pioneer 10 is
heading in “the general direction” of the star Aldebaran in the Taurus
Constellation and if it gets there it will have taken 2 million years. Pioneer 11,
according to a statement on 22nd January, 2016: “should pass close
to the nearest star in the Constellation Aquila in about 4 million years”.
NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory has an interesting “Nasa’s Eyes” web page where you can
track the Voyagers’ progress.
I really do not
care that in 40,000 years, 296, 000 or 2 or 4 million years an alien space ship
might find one of our probes. Nor do I care that some alien astronomer might detect one of these probes. To
them it may well send a cheery message of “there was intelligent life” out in space but according to most of those
involved in the projects Humanity will have died out by then.
Again, I personally
do not think any really advanced alien civilisation would be using radio
signals or sending out probes to say “Hello. We’re dead now –sorry you missed
us!”
The Andromeda Galaxy
alone has an estimated (current figure 2018) 1 trillion stars. The European
Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia space craft is 3D scanning space and has made some
excellent discoveries and has helped to create a 3D map of 1.7 billion stars in the Milky Way. According to an item on Space.Com by Elizabeth
Howell (29th March, 2018),: “the estimate of the total stars in our
galaxy at 100 billion”.
Here is a little
fact: as of the 1st November, 2018, there have been 3,874 confirmed planets in 2,892 systems, with 638 systems having
more than one planet. If you want more information on how these are detected
and distances from Earth then there is a very good Wikipedia entry –just search
online for “Exoplanets”.
We should all know
about the “Goldilocks Zone” - it refers to the habitable zone around a star
where the temperature is just right - not too hot and not too cold - for liquid
water to exist on a planet –as with the Earth.
Here, then, is another little fact for you: in November of 2013,
astronomers reported, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be
as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets
orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarfs in the Milky
Way, 11 billion of which may be orbiting Sun-like stars.
©Jonahl613 Histogram
Chart of Discovered Exoplanets as of 26th November2017
Remember that we
only just recently discovered “Ghost Galaxies” and that there are suns that
travel between galaxies –when it comes to knowing about our solar system and
the universe around us our knowledge is quite low but we are learning more.
We should really be
considering sending any radio signals and messages shorter distances -and when
objects the size of Oumuamua are only discovered by chance- we need to make
sure any signals are broadcast throughout our solar system. Let us assume that
there is some form of extra-terrestrial space-travelling civilisation out there
and that it passes near, around or through our Solar System. It is generally assumed –again- that these
travellers will immediately know that we, Humanity, are here. Assumption is the
father of all screw-ups.
Mercury is
approximately 36 million miles from the Sun while Venus is 67.2 million miles
and our planet is 93 million miles from the Sun.Unless a very large space craft
comes close to Earth and is detected –probably accidentally by one of the Near
Earth Objects surveys as Oumuamua was- then that is a vast area of space. Mars
is 141.6 million miles out from the Sun and Jupiter 483.6 million miles; Saturn
886.7 million miles while Uranus and Neptune are, respectively, 1,784 million
and 2,794.4 million miles from the Sun. The dwarf planet Pluto is 3,674.5
million miles out and the suspected “Planet 9” (or “Planet 10” if you still
object to Pluto having been downgraded) even further.
One thing I always
find interesting is that people tend to refer to the Solar System as though it were
all on some flat plane. It is not. I think many have seen the diagrams showing
comparative planetary sizes and positions in order of distance and actually
think this is reality; like the images of Oumuamua these are all artistic
visualisations. Then you also have to remember that, according to 2017 NASA
figures, the majority of known
asteroids orbit within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, generally
with not very elongated orbits.
The Asteroid Belt
is estimated to contain between 1.1
and 1.9 million asteroids larger than 1 kilometre (0.6 mile) in diameter, and
millions of smaller ones. So far
astronomers have only plotted the orbits of a relative few asteroids and the Centre
for Near Earth Object Studies CNEOS) at NASA’s JPL has an interesting web page
with regular updates on NEO Earth Close Approaches but as it points out not all
are detected before close approach. The most recently detected (November 2018) objects
vary in diameter from 12 metres to 80 metres.
Which means that
any supposed craft would need to come in fairly close to be detected and
recognised.
The argument then
is “Well, they will hear our signals –Earth is a very noisy planet!” Firstly: space is a very noisy place so that
is not a really good argument if, secondly, “they” are neither looking nor
listening. It is looking at the
situation via Human eyes; we have no idea what system of communications they
use or whether they could relate to Human activity as anything but more space
noise. Earth is also quite small.
Look at this image:
on the 25th September, 2018, a camera aboard NASA's Parker Solar Probe
captured this photograph looking back to Earth — the bright object in the right
hand (enlarged) image. Would any alien
craft passing by, say, Pluto at 3,674.5 million miles even know we are here?
Credit: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory/Parker Solar
Probe
It could be that
alien physiology is so different that their equipment would be of a type that
would not pick up or even recognise Earth noise. There is nothing special about
Earth if you consider that any aliens had spotted Humanity and taken a cursory
glance –especially if they were already in contact with far superior
civilisations to our own. This basic
ignorance –to be honest when it comes to vast distances it is all mind-numbing-
of space is also shown amongst ufologists and so called “experiencers” (alien
abductees).
Natalie’s
experiences are with entities from the Pleiades. Of course, Monica has been
involved in contact with a race from Andromeda while John has been involved
with beings from Orion. These experiencers seem to think that these are simply
solar systems -these names given without question.
The Orion Nebula is
1,344 light years away while the Pleiades are 444.2 light years off. Andromeda
is 2.537 million light years away. It
might have made some sense had the experiencers chosen a nearer galaxy such as
the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy which is ‘only’ 70,000 light years from
our Sun. In 2003 the Canis Major Dwarf
Galaxy was discovered and is now our nearest neighbour at 25,000 light years or some 42,000 light years from our Galactic centre. In
kilometres that is some 236,000,000,000,000,000. If you want the kilometres to the SagDEG,
give or take a kilometre it is 662,000,000,000,000,000.
That any alien
civilisation based on planets in such far flung galaxies are concerned about
our tiny speck of dust is absolutely ridiculous especially when you again
consider that there could be as many as 40
billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like
stars and red dwarfs in the Milky Way and that 11 billion of which may be
orbiting Sun-like stars. Should we not
be hearing more about entities from our nearer neighbours –Alpha Centauri,
Barnard’s Star, Wolf 359, Lalande 21185 and so on and how concerned they are
about how we treat our planet?
It is far likelier
that the “experiencer” has either heard the galactic name, read or come across
it some other way and thinks Andromeda et
al are simply solar systems –time and again I have actually come across
this: including amongst some ufologists.
Science also needs
to get involved in the subject of UFOs if only in the sense of looking at the
data and assessing reports –“unexplained” does not mean “alien” but it would
offer us a basic data base to build on and study. The unwillingness to do this is unscientific
and, I believe, cowardly. Hopefully, it is just through closed minds rather
than fear that their highly paid jobs might be at stake.
That those involved
with SETI will not become involved is, to a degree, and we have to be honest, understandable.
Budd Hopkins, David Jacobs et al have
made it so that the subject has become farcical: that there are “millions” of
people abducted year-in and year- out to create a race of (based on Jacobs’ own
work) alien half-wits.
But we need to concentrate
on those reports both old and new that have largely been left untainted and
there are many.
*We are not talking about hundreds of flying saucer crashes
and many hundreds of dead aliens
*We are not even looking at extra terrestrials visiting Earth
over the centuries as there is no evidence of this except that presented by the
bunko crew.
*We are certainly not talking about “many millions” of alien
abductees.
*We are not talking hundreds or thousands of extra
terrestrial space craft being sighted each year.
What we are talking
about is far less, rarer activity and, being honest again, re-assessing all of
the old reports has left me realising that there is evidence there –even if only anecdotal. 100% evidence is not
possible since if landing traces, radiation and other physical evidence is
ignored by sceptical ufologists and debunkers (the same thing) or simply waved
off as being unexplainable and therefore “not evidence” I doubt that anything
would convinced a closed and frightened mind.
By definition, and
I find this almost laughable, doing the work I am it is safe to say I am far
more involved in SETI than most of those working within SETI itself. And I ought not to exclude attempts by others
over the years that have created arrays of million candle power lights to beam
signals at “UFOs” (which might work if you are not simply aiming your light
array at a natural light phenomenon). Others over the years have tried using
amateur radio in an attempt to contact flying saucer occupants and this has, it
seems failed because hoaxers easily get involved.
Above
–the St. Paul
UFO Landing Pad.
Over the decades,
usually following a “UFO” landing or similar incident, people have created UFO
landing pads of various types. The St. Paul UFO Landing Pad in Alberta, Canada,
is hailed as “The World’s First UFO Landing Pad” and was built in 1967 as a
Canadian Centennial Project. Lack of use meant that by the 1990’s it had fallen
into disrepair but it was then restored and a UFO museum added. A UFO
conference was held there a few times. It is a big visitor attraction now
–sadly, no alien visitors yet.
Swiss man named
Werner Jaisli travelled to the small town of Cachi
in the province of Salta, Argentina and put a collection of
white and brown rocks together in the shape of a star between 2008 and 2012 and
is known as an 'ovniport'. Oddly, Jaisli
later disappeared –some saying he went to Bolivia
or back to Switzerland.
There is the other theory that Jaisli and his ovniport were successful and he
is currently whizzing around space in a spaceship.
France, the United
States and even a small effort by some in the UK have all been tried but these have all been
small scale attempts and without any financial backing these projects do not
last long –the St. Paul
attempt only survives because it was restored and designed as a tourist
attraction.
Above: Jaisli’s Argentinean
“ovniport”
We
have to ask ourselves whether the current attempts at SETI are serious. Should
we really be spending multi-millions of dollars on sending signals out that are
probably not going to reach any alien civilisation or that will take centuries
to arrive where ever they are aimed at?
SETI, of course, is not as simple as sending a signal out into space as
that would come under Communications with Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (CETI)
while SETI is the Search for Extra
Terrestrial Intelligence SETI needs to find signs of alien civilisation before
CETI can get to work.
The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA)
has a long-standing SETI Permanent Study Group
-the SPSG, formerly called the IAA SETI Committee- which addresses
matters concerning SETI science, technology, and international policy. The SPSG
meets in conjunction with the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held
annually at different locations around the world, and sponsors two SETI
Symposia at each IAC. It was in 2005 that the IAA established the SETI:
Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup (Chairman, Professor Paul
Davies) "to act as a Standing
Committee to be available to be called on at any time to advise and consult on
questions stemming from the discovery of a putative signal of extraterrestrial
intelligent (ETI) origin."
It should be pointed out that the protocols
mentioned only apply to radio SETI
rather than for METI (Active SETI). The intention for METI is covered under the
SETI charter "Declaration of
Principles Concerning Sending Communications with Extraterrestrial Intelligence".
The “Wow!” signal is not accepted as
evidence since it was heard only the once. However, were signals received that
would come under the auspices of METI –Messaging Extra Terrestrial
Intelligence. They have a web site and
you can find out about their work. There is also an outline of METI’s mission.
The Primary
Objectives And Purposes Of METI International Are To:
1. Conduct scientific
research and educational programs in Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence
(METI) and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
2. Promote international
cooperation and collaboration in METI, SETI, and astrobiology.
3. Understand and
communicate the societal implications and relevance of searching for life
beyond Earth, even before detection of extraterrestrial life.
4. Foster multidisciplinary
research on the design and transmission of interstellar messages, building a
global community of scholars from the natural sciences, social sciences,
humanities, and arts.
5. Research and
communicate to the public the many factors that influence the origins,
evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe, with a special
emphasis on the last three terms of the Drake Equation: (1) the fraction of
life-bearing worlds on which intelligence evolves, (2) the fraction of
intelligence-bearing worlds with civilizations having the capacity and
motivation for interstellar communication, and (3) the longevity of such
civilizations.
6. Offer programs to
the public and to the scholarly community that foster increased awareness of
the challenges facing our civilization’s longevity, while encouraging
individual and community activities that support the sustainability of human
culture on multigenerational timescales, which is essential for long-term METI
and SETI research.
You might think
that this would mean that there ought to be cooperation between the METI/SETI
and credible Ufologists. After all,
since 1947 -71 years- Ufologists have been talking to the general public about
the possibility of UFOs being extra terrestrial and that is a lot of groundwork
to cash in on. Sadly, it does not work that way. There are astronomers who are interested in the UFO subject, either
openly or privately. There are members
of other Scientific disciplines who are interested. Really, the Ufologists and
scientific community should be working together
As I have already
noted, Ufology does not have a good reputation. I really do not need to go into
why it has that reputation any further. With most Ufologists it is a case of
Science having to accept “many thousands of UFO sightings and alien contacts”
and then there are the factions within Ufology and the obvious demands that
will be made –dig out the preserved alien bodies and crashed flying saucers
from Roswell
and many, many other sites since 1947.
Denying these exists would be tantamount, as far as Ufologists are
concerned, to admitting that the cooperation being offered was a sham. A
cover-up designed to keep the “truth-seekers” quiet.
The fact that
scientists involved would no doubt say “You Ufologists have to be reasonable
and understand that there is no evidence of UFO landings or contact cases and
that Roswell
never had a flying saucer crash”. There
are data bases of trace evidence as well as data on vehicle interference
reports and so on. The fact that the people behind this work are not members of
an accredited university means a lot of scientists will not accept it –yet it
is there for them to review. It should be pointed out that NASA does not cover
up evidence of extra terrestrial life; if it discovered such then it would
guarantee it a massive boost in financial backing. A great many Ufologists will not accept that
NASA does not cover up evidence of ETs.
What we need to do
is go about this in a more organised manner and if we cannot all cooperate then
the work needs to be carried out privately.
Firstly, we need a
team of experienced investigators who can look into UFO reports and claimed
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. These could be ex-police officers or
ex-military police; people who have a good instinct as to whether a witnesses
is lying or not and who know how to gather evidence correctly.
A team could also
consist of astronomers or be able to consult astronomers. When it came to a
CE3K then from the outset the team should consist of a psychologist so that at
the very outset a percipient can be clearly assessed. It is also important that
in such cases where a percipient appears to be physiologically affected in some
way, that medical assistance can be given and tests run. There is a long list of cases where
percipients were noted as suffering from various physical symptoms and very few
involved any medical tests or examinations but Ufologists later guessing at
what might have happened to the person in question –often badly misquoting
medical sources. Tests as soon as
possible could probably yield a great deal of information.
Secondly, we need
to set up small areas from which radio and other types of signals could be
sent: a Field Base. The idea of a
circular array of powerful lights is still a good one since, if an object was a non terrestrial
visitor rather than a natural light phenomenon, if it returned a repeated light
signal that would indicate a great deal.
A natural light phenomenon would not have the intelligence needed to
copy and repeat a light signal back.
Thirdly, if the
area above could be funded then it could also include a “landing pad”. This does not mean some kind of constructed
area. If your Field Base is set in a large field or next to a large field then that would be the potential landing
area; UFOs have landed in swampy terrain, desert, hillsides and fields and
woods without the need for a constructed landing pad. A Field Base should be
set up in the United States,
UK and in Europe.
Fourth; you would
really require a team that can cover the United
States, Canada
as well as the UK and Europe. The speed
that a team can get to an active area or to a witness the better so the idea of
a major report from the UK
needing a team from the United
States to fly out would increase costs and
time wasted.
None of this
replaces SETI of course. The question is, however, would SETI as a body accept
the data gathered through the above manner?
It should if carried out scientifically or the alternative would be to
find members of the United Nations who would receive the information and who
could act or lend some weight to the work.
The biggest effort
would require independent financing. A
red speedster can be sent up into space as a publicity stunt but what about a
series of small satellites sent into space to broadcast contact messages or
signals –these would be far more likely to attract attention, especially if
some form of light display signal could be incorporated into them.
We are in the 21st
century and yet our attempts to get to the bottom of UFO incidents still appears
to be unscientific at best and at worst diving into a chasm of fantasy
speculation and claims. Established scientific bodies –France being the
exception with its space agency- appear to be disinterested and yet they should be interested.
It seems that any
such project would need to be funded privately but there are few out there with
the financial clout. We need a Robert
Bigelow, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. The chances of such a
backer(s) coming forward are remote in the extreme.
So we plod on.
