On November 16, 1974, humans sent their first message to the stars in an attempt to contact extraterrestrials.
They did this using what was then the largest radio telescope in the world, located at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. A group of scientists led by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan sent their message to the M13 star cluster. The message was written in binary code and contained information about human DNA. It also included figures of a human, the solar system and the Arecibo telescope. The idea was that if any aliens were to receive the signal and figure out how to decode it, they would know where it came from. Because M13 is 25,000 light-years away, it will take 25,000 years for any M13 aliens to hear our message — if they are even out there. The Arecibo message is only one of several messages intended for extraterrestrials. We have also included messages on several spacecraft, such as Pioneer and Voyager.
They did this using what was then the largest radio telescope in the world, located at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. A group of scientists led by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan sent their message to the M13 star cluster. The message was written in binary code and contained information about human DNA. It also included figures of a human, the solar system and the Arecibo telescope. The idea was that if any aliens were to receive the signal and figure out how to decode it, they would know where it came from. Because M13 is 25,000 light-years away, it will take 25,000 years for any M13 aliens to hear our message — if they are even out there. The Arecibo message is only one of several messages intended for extraterrestrials. We have also included messages on several spacecraft, such as Pioneer and Voyager.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03On November 16th, 1974, humans sent their first message to the stars in an attempt to
00:08contact extraterrestrials.
00:11They did this using what was then the largest radio telescope in the world, located at the
00:15Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
00:18A group of scientists led by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan sent their message to the M13 star
00:23cluster.
00:25The message was written in binary code and contained information about human DNA.
00:30It also included figures of a human, the solar system, and the Arecibo telescope.
00:35The idea was that if any aliens were to receive the signal and figure out how to decode it,
00:39they would know where it came from.
00:42Because M13 is 25,000 light years away, it'll take 25,000 years for any M13 aliens to hear
00:48our message, if they are even out there.
00:51The Arecibo message is only one of several messages intended for extraterrestrials.
00:56We've also included messages on several spacecrafts, such as the Pioneers and Voyagers.
00:59And that's what happened on this day in space.