Messages To Space

From the redoubtable Pink Tentacle web log comes word of a message beamed into space by Japanese astronomers in 1983. It's instructive to compare it with the more well-known (to me, anyway) message transmitted from Arecibo in 1974.

The Arecibo message is certainly more stodgy. It has crude pixel-pictures of a human figure, the giant Arecibo antenna, DNA strands, atoms, and the Solar System. The Japanese one boasts a buxom female figure, the formula for ethanol, and a cheerful kanji toast.

I suspect neither one would make much sense to an alien civilization. You just can't convey much useful information in what amounts to a bathroom-tile mosaic. The chief datum carried by both signals is simply, "We're here!"

Will we get a reply to either one? Don't hold your breath. The Japanese message was sent toward Altair, which is a nice enough star if you like 'em bright and short-lived. To date nobody has even located any planets circling Altair, let alone anything capable of detecting a radio broadcast. Conversely, the Arecibo message was transmitted toward a star cluster 25,000 light-years away. Even if there is someone listening, it will be 50,000 years before we get an answer.

This doesn't mean we should quit looking. Contact with another intelligent species is so important it's worth the wait. And probably the most amusing topic to discuss at first will be their reaction to our weird little drawings beamed into space.