Japanese scientists hoping for a message from alien life imminently

It is 40 years since message was sent from Stanford University into the cosmos

Scientists are hoping to receive a message from aliens imminently, after waiting for 30
years.

But the chances are slim: the message was sent to a star that does not appear to have any
planets, and there will only be an hour to hear the message.

It is 40 years since Japanese astronomers Masaki Morimoto and Hisashi Hirabayashi

composed a message intended to show what humans are like and how life works on
Earth, and send it into the cosmos. They did so using a telescope at Stanford University
and sent a message to Altair, a star 16.7 light years away that could potentially have life
around it.

Decades on, a team led by Shinya Narusawa at the University of Hyogo will use a large
Japanese telescope to try and see if anything is sending back a reply to our message.
Astronomers believe that it is conceivable a reply would come around now, given the
distance to the star and the time that has elapsed.

They will listen for messages coming from the star on 22 August. That date was chosen
because of its significance in Japan’s Tanabata star festival, which symbolically
celebrates the meeting of two deities Orihime and Hikoboshi, the latter of which is
represented by Altair.

Narusawa is hopeful that aliens are out there somewhere and that the message could have
really been sent towards alien life around the distant star.

“A large number of exoplanets have been detected since the 1990s,” he told Japanese
newspaper The Asahi Shimbun. “Altair may have a planet whose environment can sustain
life.”

The original message was sent on 15 August, 1983, as part of a collaboration with a
Japanese weekly comic anthology.

But the attempt to contact aliens never seemed entirely serious, and so any scientists
involved are unlikely to be disappointed. In 2008, when the email was unearthed,
Hirabayashi admitted that the pair had been drunk when they came up with the idea of
sending the message, according to Gizmodo at the time.

“I believe in aliens, but they are very difficult to find,” he said then. He also noted that he
had received an array of messages from schoolchildren about the message, which had
made sending it worth it.
If all goes well—or very wrong—Earth may receive a message from aliens from the
Altair solar system as early as 2015. Japanese astronomers Hisashi Hirabayashi and
Masaki Morimoto sent an email there back in 1983, which was lost and has just been
re-discovered by the latter at the Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory. Hirabayashi
says they were drunk at the time, which explains why some of the 13 71 x 71 pixel
images are the molecular formula for ethanol, the kanji characters for "kanpai!"
(cheers!), and the English word "toast." Check out some of the pictures and play drunk
alien yourself after the jump.

According to Hirabayahsi, he "came up with that idea while drinking. The aliens
probably won't understand that (kanpai and toast) part." We can only hope that
whoever is looking for life at their radio telescope up there won't be drunk as well, if
only to ensure good inter-planetary relations from the start. Example:

Obviously, this means: "Dear People of Altair, We are organisms who reproduce
sexually to form families. Life on Earth started in the water." Kind of scary, but better
than the alternative—after five whiskies: "Hey alien dudes, here on Earth we are all
nudist. Some of us are giants with big tits. Others are giants with tiny penises. Fishes
like to suntan on the beach. Turn the page to see us drunk. Kanpai!"

Whatever happens with the decoding of this binary message, at least it gives a little
hope to Mulder-wannabes and tinfoil hatters all over the world, who may see alien
contact in just seven years. Otherwise, the prospect was quite bad: US scientists sent
another message to M13—the Hercules globular cluster—thinking that having a big
concentration of stars, it may give us a bigger possibility of getting an answer back,
instead of Elvis singing back "Return to Sender." Unfortunately, they didn't think that
the waiting time to get a message back from a planet in M13 would be a bit too long: a
mere 46,000 years.While Hirabayashi is hopeful that his message was received in 1999
and now a reply is getting back to be received by any Jodie Foster listening out there, he
knows that it's highly improbable that it would work. "I believe in aliens, but they are
very difficult to find," he says.

If you add the fact that Altair may not have any planets at all, the chances are extremely
slim. Still, he says that they did it because "it was good enough," and he is glad about it,
especially after all the messages he got from schoolchildren everywhere: "children's
response is the best thing."
30 yıllık bekleyişin ardından bilim insanları çok yakın zamanda uzaylılardan mesaj
almayı umuyor.

Ancak ihtimal zayıf: Mesaj, gezegeni yokmuş gibi görünen bir yıldıza gönderilmişti
ve sadece bir saatliğine duyulabilecekti.

Japon gökbilimciler Masaki Morimoto ve Hisaşi Hirabayaşi'nin, insanların neye

benzediğini ve Dünya'da yaşamın nasıl işlediğini göstermeyi amaçlayan bir mesaj
oluşturup evrene göndermesinin üzerinden 40 yıl geçti. Stanford
Üniversitesi'ndeki bir teleskobu kullanan Japon bilim insanları, 16,7 ışık yılı
uzaklıkta yer alan ve etrafında potansiyel olarak yaşam barındırabilecek bir yıldız
olan Altair'e mesaj göndermişti.

Mesajın gönderilmesinden onlarca yıl sonra, Hyogo Üniversitesi'nden Şinya

Narusava liderliğindeki bir ekip, büyük bir Japon teleskobu kullanarak mesajımıza
yanıt gönderen bir şey olup olmadığını görmeye çalışacak. Gökbilimciler, yıldıza
uzaklık ve aradan geçen zaman göz önüne alındığında, şu sıralar bir cevap
gelmesinin olası olduğuna inanıyor.

Bilim insanları yıldızdan gelecek mesajları bugün (22 Ağustos) dinleyecek. Bu

tarih, Orihime ve Altair'in temsil ettiği Hikoboşi adlı iki tanrının buluşmasının
sembolik olarak kutlandığı Japonya'nın Tanabata yıldız festivalindeki önemi
nedeniyle seçildi.

Narusava, uzaylıların orada bir yerlerde olduğu ve mesajın gerçekten de uzak

yıldızın etrafındaki uzaylı yaşama doğru gönderilmiş olabileceği konusunda
umutlu.

Gökbilimci, Japon gazetesi Asahi Shimbun'a verdiği röportajda "1990'lardan bu

yana çok sayıda ötegezegen tespit edildi" dedi.

Altair'de yaşamı sürdürebilecek çevreye sahip bir gezegen olabilir.

İlk mesaj 15 Ağustos 1983'te bir Japon haftalık çizgi roman antolojisiyle yapılan
işbirliği kapsamında gönderilmişti.

Ancak uzaylılarla temas kurma girişimi hiçbir zaman tamamen ciddi

görünmemişti. Dolayısıyla bu işe dahil olan bilim insanlarının hayal kırıklığına
uğraması da pek olası değil. Gizmodo'nun 2008'de yaptığı bir habere göre, o yıl
bir e-postası gün yüzüne çıkan Hirabayaşi, mesaj gönderme fikrini bulduklarında
ikilinin sarhoş olduğunu kabul ediyor.

Japon bilim insanı o dönem, "Uzaylılara inanıyorum ama bulunmaları çok zor"
demişti. Hirabayaşi ayrıca okul çağındaki çocuklardan mesajla ilgili bir dizi ileti
aldığını ve bunun da mesajı yollamaya değer kıldığını belirtmişti.