All Topics  
Arecibo message

 
Arecibo Message

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Arecibo message
 
 
  Topics Arecibo message Topic Home

The Arecibo message was beamed
Light beam

File:Hk-Symphony of Lights 3420.jpgA light beam or beam of light is a narrow projection of light energy radiating from a source into a beam....
 into space a single time (not repeated) via frequency modulated
Frequency modulation

In telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog signal applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal....
 radio waves
Radio waves

Radio waves are Electromagnetic radiation occurring on the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum....
 at a ceremony to mark the remodeling of the Arecibo radio telescope
Arecibo Observatory

The Arecibo Observatory is a very sensitive radio telescope located approximately south-southwest from the city of Arecibo, Puerto Rico in Puerto Rico....
 on 16 November 1974. It was aimed at the globular star cluster M13 some 25,000 light years away because M13 was a large and close collection of stars that was available in the sky at the time and place of the ceremony. The message consisted of 1679 binary digits
Bit

A bit is a binary numeral system numerical digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1. Binary digits are a basic unit of information Computer data storage and transmission in digital computing and digital information theory....
, approximately 210 byte
Byte

A byte is a basic unit of measurement of Computer storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a Byte addressing memory address space....
s, transmitted at a frequency of 2380 MHz
Hertz

The hertz is a measure of frequency per unit of time, or the number of list of cycles per second. It is the SI base unit of frequency in the International System of Units , and is used worldwide in both general-purpose and scientific contexts....
 and modulated by shifting the frequency by 10 Hz, with a power of 1000kW.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Arecibo message'
Start a new discussion about 'Arecibo message'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Arecibo message was beamed
Light beam

File:Hk-Symphony of Lights 3420.jpgA light beam or beam of light is a narrow projection of light energy radiating from a source into a beam....
 into space a single time (not repeated) via frequency modulated
Frequency modulation

In telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog signal applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal....
 radio waves
Radio waves

Radio waves are Electromagnetic radiation occurring on the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum....
 at a ceremony to mark the remodeling of the Arecibo radio telescope
Arecibo Observatory

The Arecibo Observatory is a very sensitive radio telescope located approximately south-southwest from the city of Arecibo, Puerto Rico in Puerto Rico....
 on 16 November 1974. It was aimed at the globular star cluster M13 some 25,000 light years away because M13 was a large and close collection of stars that was available in the sky at the time and place of the ceremony. The message consisted of 1679 binary digits
Bit

A bit is a binary numeral system numerical digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1. Binary digits are a basic unit of information Computer data storage and transmission in digital computing and digital information theory....
, approximately 210 byte
Byte

A byte is a basic unit of measurement of Computer storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a Byte addressing memory address space....
s, transmitted at a frequency of 2380 MHz
Hertz

The hertz is a measure of frequency per unit of time, or the number of list of cycles per second. It is the SI base unit of frequency in the International System of Units , and is used worldwide in both general-purpose and scientific contexts....
 and modulated by shifting the frequency by 10 Hz, with a power of 1000kW. The transmission rate of the message was one bit per second, thus the entire transmission lasted 1679 seconds.

The cardinality
Cardinality

In mathematics, the cardinality of a set is a measure of the "number of Element of the set". For example, the set A = contains 3 elements, and therefore A has a cardinality of 3....
 of 1679 was chosen because it is a semiprime
Semiprime

In mathematics, a semiprime is a natural number that is the product of two prime numbers. The first few semiprimes are 4, 6, 9, 10, 14, 15, 21, 22, 25, 26, ......
 (the product of two prime number
Prime number

In mathematics, a prime number is a natural number which has exactly two distinct natural number divisors: 1 and itself. An infinitude of prime numbers exists, as demonstrated by Euclid around 300 BC....
s), to be arranged rectangularly
Raster scan

A Raster scan, or raster scanning, is the pattern of image detection and reconstruction in television, and is the pattern of image storage and transmission used in most computer bitmap image systems....
 as 73 rows by 23 columns. The alternate arrangement, 23 rows by 73 columns, produces jumbled nonsense. The message forms the image shown on the right, or its inverse, when translated into graphics characters and spaces.

Dr. Frank Drake
Frank Drake

Dr. Frank Donald Drake is an American astronomer and astrophysicist. He is most famous for founding SETI and creating the Drake equation and Arecibo Message....
, then at Cornell University
Cornell University

Cornell University located in Ithaca, New York, USA, is a private university with four Statutory college. Its two medical campuses are in New York City and Education City, Qatar....
 and creator of the famous Drake equation
Drake equation

The Drake equation is a famous result in the speculative fields of exobiology and the SETI .This equation was devised by Frank Drake in 1960, in an attempt to estimate the number of extraterrestrial life civilizations in our galaxy with which we might come in contact....
, wrote the message, with help from Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. was an United States astronomer, Astrochemistry, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences....
, among others. The message consists of seven parts that encode the following:
  1. The numbers one (1) through ten (10)
  2. The atomic numbers of the elements hydrogen
    Hydrogen

    Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the chemical symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly combustion and explosive Diatomic molecule gas with the molecular formula H2....
    , carbon
    Carbon

    Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds....
    , nitrogen
    Nitrogen

    Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
    , oxygen
    Oxygen

    Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
    , and phosphorus
    Phosphorus

    Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. The name comes from the and . A Valency nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus is commonly found in inorganic phosphate minerals....
    , which make up deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
  3. The formula
    Formula

    In mathematics and in the sciences, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically , or a general relationship between quantities....
    s for the sugar
    Sugar

    Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many other sources....
    s and bases
    Base (chemistry)

    In chemistry, a base is most commonly thought of as an aqueous substance that can accept protons. A base is also often referred to as an alkali if OH- ions are involved....
     in the nucleotides of DNA
  4. The number of nucleotides in DNA, and a graphic of the double helix structure of DNA
  5. A graphic figure of a human, the dimension (physical height) of an average man, and the human population of Earth
  6. A graphic of Earth's solar system
    Solar System

    The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
  7. A graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope
    Arecibo Observatory

    The Arecibo Observatory is a very sensitive radio telescope located approximately south-southwest from the city of Arecibo, Puerto Rico in Puerto Rico....
     and the dimension (the physical diameter) of the transmitting antenna dish


Because it will take 25,000 years for the message to reach its intended destination of stars (and an additional 25,000 years for any reply), the Arecibo message was more a demonstration of human technological achievement than a real attempt to enter into a conversation with extraterrestrials. In fact, the stars that the message was aimed at will no longer be there when it arrives. According to the Cornell News press release of Nov. 12, 1999, the real purpose of the message was not to make contact, but to demonstrate the capabilities of newly installed equipment.

Explanation


Numbers


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ---------------------- 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 00 00 00 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 00 00 10 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 01 11 01 X X X X X X X X X X <-least-significant-digit marker

The numbers from 1
1 (number)

1 is a number, number names, and the name of the glyph representing that number.It represents a single entity, the unit of counting or measurement....
 to 10
10 (number)

10 is an Even and odd numbers natural number following 9 and preceding 11 ....
 appear in binary
Binary numeral system

The binary numeral system, or notation with a radix of 2. Owing to its straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry using logic gates, the binary system is used internally by all modern computers....
 format (the bottom row marks the beginning of each number).

Even assuming that recipients know the purpose of this section is to write decimal in binary, the encoding of the numbers may not be immediately obvious due to the way they have been written. To read the first seven digits, ignore the bottom row, and read them as three binary digits from top to bottom, with the top digit being the most significant.

The readings for 8, 9 and 10 are a little different, as they have been given an additional column next to the first (to the right in the image). This is probably intended to show that numbers too large to fit in a column can be written in several contiguous ones, where the contiguous columns do not have the base marker.

DNA elements


H C N O P 1 6 7 8 15 ---------- 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 X X X X X

The numbers 1, 6, 7, 8 and 15 appear. These are the atomic numbers of hydrogen
Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the chemical symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly combustion and explosive Diatomic molecule gas with the molecular formula H2....
 (H), carbon
Carbon

Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds....
 (C), nitrogen
Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
 (N), oxygen
Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
 (O), and phosphorus
Phosphorus

Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. The name comes from the and . A Valency nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus is commonly found in inorganic phosphate minerals....
 (P), the components of DNA.

The numbers 8 and 15 are written in a logical extension of binary encoding, rather than with the contiguous-columns method shown in the message's number figures at the top:

Nucleotides


Deoxyribose
Deoxyribose

Deoxyribose, also known as D-Deoxyribose and 2-deoxyribose, is an aldopentose — a monosaccharide containing five carbon atoms, and including an aldehyde functional group in its linear structure....
 Adenine
Adenine

Adenine is a nucleobase with a variety of roles in biochemistry including cellular respiration, in the form of both the energy-rich adenosine triphosphate and the cofactor s nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide , and Protein biosynthesis, as a chemical component of DNA and RNA....
 Thymine
Thymine

Thymine is one of the four bases in the nucleic acid of DNA that make up the letters GCAT. The others are adenine, guanine, and cytosine. Thymine always pairs with adenine....
 Deoxyribose (C5OH7) (C5H4N5) (C5H5N2O2) (C5OH7)

Phosphate
Phosphate

A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a Salt of phosphoric acid. Inorganic phosphates are mining to obtain phosphorus for use in agriculture and industry....
 Phosphate (PO4) (PO4)

Deoxyribose Cytosine
Cytosine

Cytosine is one of the five main bases found in DNA and RNA. It is a pyrimidine derivative, with a heterocyclic aromatic ring and two substituents attached ....
 Guanine
Guanine

Guanine is one of the five main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, the others being adenine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil. In DNA, guanine is paired with cytosine....
 Deoxyribose (C5OH7) (C4H4N3O) (C5H4N5O) (C5OH7)

Phosphate Phosphate (PO4) (PO4)

The nucleotides are described as sequences of the five atoms that appear on the preceding line. Each sequence represents the molecular formula of the nucleotide as incorporated into DNA (as opposed to the free form of the nucleotide).

For example, deoxyribose (C5OH7 in DNA, C5O4H10 when free), the nucleotide in the top left in the image, is read as:

11000 10000 11010 XXXXX ----- 75010

i.e. 7 atoms of hydrogen, 5 atoms of carbon, 0 atoms of nitrogen, 1 atom of oxygen, and 0 atoms of phosphorus.

Double helix


11 11 11 11 11 01 11 11 01 11 01 11 10 11 11 01 X

1111111111110111 1111101101011110 (binary) = 4,294,441,822 (decimal)

DNA double helix
Helix

A helix is a special kind of space curve, i.e. a Differentiable manifold curve in three-space. As a mental image of a helix one may take the spring ....
 (the vertical bar represents the number of nucleotides, but the value depicted is around 4.3 billion when in fact there are about 3.2 billion base pairs in the human genome).

Humanity


X011011 111111 X0111 110111 111011 111111 110000

1110 (binary) = 14 (decimal)

000011 111111 110111 111011 111111 110110 (binary) = 4,292,853,750 (decimal)

The element in the center represents a human. The element on the left (in the image) indicates the average height of a person: 1764 mm. This corresponds to the horizontally written binary 14 multiplied by the wavelength
Wavelength

In physics, wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating wave of a given frequency. It is commonly designated by the Greek language letter lambda ....
 of the message (126 mm). The element on the right depicts the size of human population in 1974, around 4.3 billion. In this case, the number is oriented horizontally rather than vertically, with the least-significant-digit marker to the upper left in the image.

Planets


Earth Sun Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

The solar system
Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
, showing the Sun
Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
 and the planets in the order of their position from the Sun
Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
: Mercury
Mercury (planet)

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest Orbital eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt....
, Venus
Venus

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus , the Roman mythology goddess of love....
, Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
, Mars
MARS

In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher that was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm....
, Jupiter
Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the Solar system by size planet within the Solar System. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in our Solar System combined....
, Saturn
Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant....
, Uranus
Uranus

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the third-largest and fourth most massive planet in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus the father of Kronos and grandfather of Zeus ....
, Neptune
NEPTUNE

=Overview=The project, along with sister project, VENUS, offers a unique approach to ocean science. Traditionally, ocean scientists have relied on infrequent ship cruises or space-based satellites to carry out their research....
, and Pluto
Pluto

Pluto , Minor planet names Pluto, is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-largest body observed directly orbiting the Sun....
. (Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet
Dwarf planet

A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity but has not Clearing the neighbourhood of planetesimals and is not a natural satellite....
, but was still considered a planet at the time the message was written.)

The Earth is the third planet from the Sun
Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
 - its graphic is shifted up to identify it as the planet from which the signal was sent. The human figure is shown "standing on" the Earth graphic.

In addition to showing position, the graphic provides a general, not-to-scale size reference of each planet and the Sun.

Telescope


bottom two rows: 100101 <--- 111110X --->

100101 111110 (binary) = 2,430 (decimal)

The last part represents the Arecibo radio telescope with its diameter
Diameter

In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle....
 (2430 multiplied by the wavelength gives 306.18 m). In this case, the number is oriented horizontally, with the least-significant-digit marker to the lower right in the image.

Message as binary string

0000001010101000000000000101000001010000000100100010001000100101100101010 1010101010100100100000000000000000000000000000000000001100000000000000000 0011010000000000000000000110100000000000000000010101000000000000000000111 1100000000000000000000000000000000110000111000110000110001000000000000011 0010000110100011000110000110101111101111101111101111100000000000000000000 0000001000000000000000001000000000000000000000000000010000000000000000011 1111000000000000011111000000000000000000000001100001100001110001100010000 0001000000000100001101000011000111001101011111011111011111011111000000000 0000000000000000010000001100000000010000000000011000000000000000100000110 0000000001111110000011000000111110000000000110000000000000100000000100000 0001000001000000110000000100000001100001100000010000000000110001000011000 0000000000001100110000000000000110001000011000000000110000110000001000000 0100000010000000010000010000000110000000010001000000001100000000100010000 0000010000000100000100000001000000010000000100000000000011000000000110000 0000110000000001000111010110000000000010000000100000000000000100000111110 0000000000010000101110100101101100000010011100100111111101110000111000001 1011100000000010100000111011001000000101000001111110010000001010000011000 0001000001101100000000000000000000000000000000000111000001000000000000001 1101010001010101010100111000000000101010100000000000000001010000000000000 0111110000000000000000111111111000000000000111000000011100000000011000000 0000011000000011010000000001011000001100110000000110011000010001010000010 1000100001000100100010010001000000001000101000100000000000010000100001000 0000000001000000000100000000000000100101000000000001111001111101001111000

or

00000010101010000000000 00101000001010000000100 10001000100010010110010 10101010101010100100100 00000000000000000000000 00000000000011000000000 00000000001101000000000 00000000001101000000000 00000000010101000000000 00000000011111000000000 00000000000000000000000 11000011100011000011000 10000000000000110010000 11010001100011000011010 11111011111011111011111 00000000000000000000000 00010000000000000000010 00000000000000000000000 00001000000000000000001 11111000000000000011111 00000000000000000000000 11000011000011100011000 10000000100000000010000 11010000110001110011010 11111011111011111011111 00000000000000000000000 00010000001100000000010 00000000001100000000000 00001000001100000000001 11111000001100000011111 00000000001100000000000 00100000000100000000100 00010000001100000001000 00001100001100000010000 00000011000100001100000 00000000001100110000000 00000011000100001100000 00001100001100000010000 00010000001000000001000 00100000001100000000100 01000000001100000000100 01000000000100000001000 00100000001000000010000 00010000000000001100000 00001100000000110000000 00100011101011000000000 00100000001000000000000 00100000111110000000000 00100001011101001011011 00000010011100100111111 10111000011100000110111 00000000010100000111011 00100000010100000111111 00100000010100000110000 00100000110110000000000 00000000000000000000000 00111000001000000000000 00111010100010101010101 00111000000000101010100 00000000000000101000000 00000000111110000000000 00000011111111100000000 00001110000000111000000 00011000000000001100000 00110100000000010110000 01100110000000110011000 01000101000001010001000 01000100100010010001000 00000100010100010000000 00000100001000010000000 00000100000000010000000 00000001001010000000000 01111001111101001111000

See also

  • Active SETI
    Active SETI

    Active SETI is the attempt to send messages to intelligent aliens. Active SETI messages are usually in the form of radio signals. But physical messages like that of the Pioneer plaque may also be considered an active SETI message....
  • Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence
    Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence

    CETI is a branch of SETI research that focuses on composing and deciphering messages that could theoretically be understood by another technological civilization....


External links

  • on Alien Research