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    Father-daughter duo deciphers message from Mars

    Pabio Posted on

    An American father-daughter team, Ken and Keli Chaffin, deciphered a simulated “extraterrestrial” message transmitted from Mars in May 2023 via a radio signal sent by the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). The message, which was intercepted by three observatories on Earth, was part of an art project called “A Sign in Space,” which aimed to involve citizen scientists in decoding an extraterrestrial message.

    The Chaffins realized that the message contained a diagram representing the structure of five amino acids, the fundamental building blocks of life. According to specialists from the European Space Agency, the Chaffins carried out simulations for “entire days” before finding the solution. They “followed their intuition and conducted hours-long simulations every day,” ultimately organizing the elements into coherent structures using computer simulations and reversible cellular automata.

    The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter transmitted the simulated signal to Earth in May 2023, which was received 16 minutes later. A global community of more than 5,000 citizen scientists quickly got to work on the raw data, managing to extract the signal within ten days. In the first phase, this group of amateur scientists successfully extracted the encrypted message from the raw radio signal, demonstrating the potential for global collaboration in the event of actual extraterrestrial contact.

    The “A Sign in Space” project was initiated by multimedia artist Daniela de Paulis, who collaborated with the European Space Agency, the SETI Institute, the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia and INAF, l Italian National Institute of Astrophysics. The image in the message was designed by de Paulis and a team of astronomers and computer scientists, with support from these institutions. The project was designed as an experiment to test what methods might be useful in decoding transmissions from extraterrestrial civilizations.

    Amino acids are the building blocks of life, and their inclusion in the message raises many questions: What do the five biological components represent? Are the implications of amino acids indicative of an attempt to communicate about life itself?

    The project encourages the global community to delve deeper into the meaning of this abstract message from Mars. Many questions arise: are the aliens friendly or hostile? What is the significance of the cell formations and life forms identified in the message?

    According to the European Space Agency, results from the “A Sign in Space” project showed that if humanity ever received a signal from real extraterrestrials, citizen scientists could play a crucial role in deciphering it. The involvement of more than 5,000 amateur scientists in the initial extraction phase and the Chaffins’ subsequent success in decoding the message demonstrate the power of collaborative efforts and diverse approaches to solving complex problems.

    While the Chaffins’ work has provided significant insights into the content of the message, the search for its meaning begins. The true meaning of the message remains a matter of debate, and the project continues to involve the global community in interpreting the implications of this simulated extraterrestrial communication. As the exploration of the meaning of the message unfolds, the collaboration between scientists, artists, and citizen scientists highlights the interdisciplinary nature of these efforts.

    Earlier, a British scientist announced the discovery of signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. This, alongside the findings of “A Sign in Space”, suggests growing interest and progress in the search for intelligent life beyond Earth.

    Now that “A Sign in Space” has been decoded, the global community is invited to discuss the meaning of this abstract message from Mars, while its interpretation remains open. The project aims to explore the global community’s reaction to a hypothetical extraterrestrial message and test whether citizen scientists can collaborate effectively on such a monumental task.

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    Sources: IFLScience, Gazzeta.Ru, Scienze Notizie

    This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq



    Pabio
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