Sign up with GoogleWhat do you say to an Alien
There have been several messages broadcast into space or placed on board deep space probes intended for any attentive aliens out there. But we shouldn't be narcissistic when it comes to crafting interstellar greetings, says a group of researchers in a recent science paper. They argue that if we are, E.T. simply won't understand what we're trying to tell them.
Take the aluminum postcard plaque aboard the star-bound Pioneer 10 and 11 probes (pictured above). The most dominant graphic is an engraving of man and woman, his hand upraised in a greeting gesture. This is hardly a universal gesture especially if the aliens who find it have no limbs. Or it could be taken as downright obscene in some corners of the Galaxy.
ANALYSIS: Asteroid Forensics May Point to Alien Space Miners
The plaque always has a high giggle factor when I show it to my Astronomy 101 classes. "The aliens are going to think we don't wear any clothes!" said one student.
And that's just the point, says authors Dimitra Atri, Julia DeMarines, and Jacob Haqq-Misra, who warn that interstellar information that means a lot to us may be inscrutable to E.T. because it is too culturally overloaded.
"Many people would choose to construct a message containing sights and sounds of the human experience but overly anthropocentric signals that implicitly rely upon certain facets of human culture may go unnoticed by extraterrestrial listeners," writes Atri, of the University of Kansas.
"Messages that rely on the specifics of human biology or culture will be less likely to effectively communicate to an unfamiliar extraterrestrial listener. This may require that the message attempts to represent Earth as a whole instead of focusing exclusively on humanity.”
The researchers favor using two specific radio wavelengths for transmission which are commonly observed in nature and easy to pick up. They also recommend establishing a dedicated radio transmission beacon that can paint the sky and revisit stars with regular broadcasts. Lasers offer a powerful signal that stands out from the sky background, but they can only be used for specific stellar targets.
SLIDE SHOW: Where is alien life hiding?
ANALYSIS: Do Aliens Exist? If So, Will They Kill Us?
Earth Calling
It's unlikely anyone out there will find the twin Pioneer and Voyager probes that carry simple notes-in-bottles. But we have sent several radio transmissions to the stars.
For example, in 1993 and 2003 two interstellar radio messages were broadcast from a 70-meter radio telescope in the Ukraine. It targeted nine nearby stars, including the sun-like 55 Cancri, which I bet could host a civilization on one of its five planets.
The transmission included musical melodies performed on the theremin, an electronic audio instrument that was used to make the soundtrack for the original film "The Day The Earth Stood Still," among other sci-fi movies. Would extraterrestrial really like listening to melodies that we imagine epitomize aliens? The signal also contains bilingual Russian and English greetings to extraterrestrials.
The scientists say that another problem is in our assumption that aliens can properly perceive pictures or sounds with their own unique sensory organs.
Read more here: What do you say to an Alien
There have been several messages broadcast into space or placed on board deep space probes intended for any attentive aliens out there. But we shouldn't be narcissistic when it comes to crafting interstellar greetings, says a group of researchers in a recent science paper. They argue that if we are, E.T. simply won't understand what we're trying to tell them.
Take the aluminum postcard plaque aboard the star-bound Pioneer 10 and 11 probes (pictured above). The most dominant graphic is an engraving of man and woman, his hand upraised in a greeting gesture. This is hardly a universal gesture especially if the aliens who find it have no limbs. Or it could be taken as downright obscene in some corners of the Galaxy.
ANALYSIS: Asteroid Forensics May Point to Alien Space Miners
The plaque always has a high giggle factor when I show it to my Astronomy 101 classes. "The aliens are going to think we don't wear any clothes!" said one student.
And that's just the point, says authors Dimitra Atri, Julia DeMarines, and Jacob Haqq-Misra, who warn that interstellar information that means a lot to us may be inscrutable to E.T. because it is too culturally overloaded.
"Many people would choose to construct a message containing sights and sounds of the human experience but overly anthropocentric signals that implicitly rely upon certain facets of human culture may go unnoticed by extraterrestrial listeners," writes Atri, of the University of Kansas.
"Messages that rely on the specifics of human biology or culture will be less likely to effectively communicate to an unfamiliar extraterrestrial listener. This may require that the message attempts to represent Earth as a whole instead of focusing exclusively on humanity.”
The researchers favor using two specific radio wavelengths for transmission which are commonly observed in nature and easy to pick up. They also recommend establishing a dedicated radio transmission beacon that can paint the sky and revisit stars with regular broadcasts. Lasers offer a powerful signal that stands out from the sky background, but they can only be used for specific stellar targets.
SLIDE SHOW: Where is alien life hiding?
ANALYSIS: Do Aliens Exist? If So, Will They Kill Us?
Earth Calling
It's unlikely anyone out there will find the twin Pioneer and Voyager probes that carry simple notes-in-bottles. But we have sent several radio transmissions to the stars.
For example, in 1993 and 2003 two interstellar radio messages were broadcast from a 70-meter radio telescope in the Ukraine. It targeted nine nearby stars, including the sun-like 55 Cancri, which I bet could host a civilization on one of its five planets.
The transmission included musical melodies performed on the theremin, an electronic audio instrument that was used to make the soundtrack for the original film "The Day The Earth Stood Still," among other sci-fi movies. Would extraterrestrial really like listening to melodies that we imagine epitomize aliens? The signal also contains bilingual Russian and English greetings to extraterrestrials.
The scientists say that another problem is in our assumption that aliens can properly perceive pictures or sounds with their own unique sensory organs.
Read more here: What do you say to an Alien
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