Strange Message from Mars to Earth: Coding Now

EENAV Radio Telescope in the Province of Bologna – EENAV website

Match the race to decode the message from Mars Arrived on the evening of May 25: the data collected by radio telescopes at 21:16 Italian time, processed and made available online on the project website “mark in spaceIn just a few hours, more than 1,300 people from all over the world (including Italy) have tried their hand at this experiment on the border between science, art, and science fiction.

the Signalwhich simulates a message sent by an extraterrestrial civilization, sent via radio waves from Gas tracking probe on the ExoMars mission, in orbit around Mars. On the ground it “arrived around 21:16 Italian time and took half an hour as expected”, experts explained.Enough. He was Medicina Italian radio telescope (Bologna)managed by Enav, and two American radio telescopes (Allen Telescope Array of the SetiI Instituteand California and Robert C. Byrd Greenbank Telescope), as well as various independent amateur radio groups. The Radio Astronomy Station team in Medicina also picked a small snippet of a signal lasting one minute and, thanks to a piece of software, translated it into sound to make it audible to the human ear.

“Mars calls to Earthanswer on the ground … “On May 25 A.S extraterrestrial message He was transported from the “Red Planet” with the destination “We the Humans”. At the forefront of this experiment isEuropean Space Agency (ESA).) and specificallyEnough. was the first act Project “A Sign in Space”Designed by artist Daniela De Polis, Space and Society Area Coordinator at the InCosmiCon Research Center, Department of Humanities and Innovation for the Territory affiliateInsupria Universitydirected by Prof Paolo Muso.

“Few know this – explained Professor Musseau – but thinking about how we communicate with other intelligent beings goes back to Kant and can teach us a lot about ourselves, even if the connection never takes place.” the If you are He adds that he has been working on it for decades, “but so far only on a theoretical level.” Seti is short for Look for extraterrestrial intelligence (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), a program dedicated to the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life born precisely in the 1960s. On the other hand, Mousseau said that the phrase “signal in space” has mainly a demonstrative purpose: “to make the general public aware that the reception of a strange message is possible and could happen at any moment.” However, the professor noted that “in many respects, the message is structured as we think an interstellar message should be real.” That is why, thanks to the “truly amazing” work of Daniela De Paulis, “for the first time in history we will be able to test our ideas on a real broadcast”. Hopefully, this will “revitalize research in this field, which has been somewhat neglected in recent years for various reasons,” Mousso concluded.

the goal So is s realizationA simulation of an unprecedented scenario that asks the audience what would happen if we received a message from an extraterrestrial civilization And what would it mean for humanity. To answer these questions, Daniela De Polis has assembled a science team, under the umbrella of which the English title, “A Sign in Space,” quotes the story of “A Sign in Space.” “Cosmicomics” by Italo Calvinowhose centenary of birth is being celebrated this year.