Astronomers have recently sent a radio message to nearby star system. According to them, the star, a potentially habitable planet is near enough that we could receive a reply in less than 25 years.
The objective star is GJ 273, otherwise called Luyten’s star, a red diminutive person in the northern group of stars of Canis Minor, only 12 light years away. In Spring of this current year, it was found to have two planets. One of them, known as GJ 273b, circles inside the star’s “livable zone” and could conceivably harbor fluid water, and maybe life.
Douglas Vakoch, president of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) International said, “I think that’s an unlikely outcome, but it would be a welcome outcome.”
Scientists sent the message on the anniversary of the Arecibo message, a radio transmission beamed toward a distant star cluster in 1974 from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The message consists of information on the planets of our solar system, the structure of DNA, a cartoon-like picture of what a human being looks like, and other basic information about the earth and its inhabitants.
They dispatched the message via an antenna in Norway over roughly eight hours over a three-day period in October.
It starts with data about checking, number juggling, geometry, and trigonometry, and incorporates a portrayal of the radio waves that convey the message, and an instructional exercise on tickers and timekeeping, to check whether any potential occupants of GJ 273b have a comprehension of time like our own.
There is one issue- it’s far from clear who should speak for humankind. Another concern is the potential danger of reaching out to extraterrestrials.
Dan Werthimer, a SETI researcher at the University of California at Berkeley said, “Ninety-eight percent of astronomers and SETI researchers, including myself, think that METI is potentially dangerous, and not a good idea. It’s like shouting in a forest before you know if there are tigers, lions, and bears or other dangerous animals there.”