The Arecibo Message: First Attempt at Alien Contact

La verdad está ahí fuera, y un viejo mensaje de radio podría ayudarnos a encontrarla. Enviado hace cincuenta años desde un observatorio ya desmantelado, representa el primer intento de contactar con extraterrestres.

Bandera UK
Daniel Francis

Speaker (UK accent)

Actualizado a

480 The Arecibo Message Istock

Escucha este articulo

Imprimir

Is there anyone out there? Do aliens really exist? Will they communicate with us one day? These are some of the questions that the Arecibo message could help answer. Sent into space on 16 November 1974, the message was the first deliberate attempt to communicate with aliens.

This is who we are

The Arecibo message is so called because it was transmitted from the Arecibo Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The event took place at a ceremony to celebrate the the observatory’s remodelling. Installed in the 1960s, the Arecibo Telescope has since been dismantled. The message was sent to Messier 13, a large cluster of stars relatively close to Earth. It contained some basic information about Earth and the human race that was transmitted via frequency-modulated radio waves. It was sent in binary form: when the ones are translated into graphic characters and the zeros into spaces the message forms a visual image. The message also included representations of the fundamental chemicals of life, the formula for DNA, a diagram of our solar system, and simple images of a human and the Arecibo telescope itself.

480 The Arecibo Message adobestock

A symbolic event

We have never received a response to the Arecibo message, and we probably never will. Travelling at the speed of light, the message will take about twenty-five thousand years to reach Messier 13, and it will take another twenty-five thousand for any response to reach Earth. What’s more, to receive the message, aliens will have to be in exactly the right place at the right time, and have the capacity to decode the message.

Outlasting humans

After it reaches Messier 13, the message will not stop but continue on its course through outer space, travelling through distant galaxies for millions of years, likely outlasting humans. Although many people hope the message will result in alien contact one day, this was not, in fact, its main intention. As Donald Campbell, a professor of Astronomy at Cornell University who was a research associate at the Arecibo Observatory at the time of the transmission, explained, “It was strictly a symbolic event, to show that we could do it.”  

01 Cover COVER 475 ESP

Este artículo pertenece al número de March 2025 de la revista Speak Up.

Waitangi Day: A Celebration of New Zealand’s History
Adobe Stock

Culture

Waitangi Day: A Celebration of New Zealand’s History

El Día de Waitangi, fiesta nacional de Nueva Zelanda, conmemora la firma de un tratado entre el pueblo maorí y la Corona británica en 1840. Repasamos la historia de esta festividad, cómo se celebra y lo que significa para el país en la actualidad.

Sarah Davison

A Short Story: Mystery Man

Fiction

A Short Story: Mystery Man

Una historia que muestra cómo se resienten las relaciones cuando se rompe la comunicación y de qué manera es posible restablecer los lazos perdidos.

Talitha Linehan

More in Explore

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

A Short Story: Frost Fair

Fiction

A Short Story: Frost Fair

El espectáculo del Támesis helado transforma Londres en un escenario único, donde una historia de amistad inicialmente maravillosa se convierte rápidamente en una pesadilla.

Rachel Roberts

Suscríbete y mejora tu inglés por solo 1€/mes ¡Es el momento! Mejora tu nivel de inglés con un método sencillo que se adapta a ti. Cancela cuando quieras.