The idea to inform our extraterrestrial brothers in mind about oneself visited mankind several centuries ago. In the first half of the 19th century, the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss proposed to cut a triangle with sides of 15 km in the taiga and sow it with wheat. Aliens should have noticed this and thus guessed that there is intelligent life on Earth. Gauss's plan was not put into practice, since the area of ​​the triangle proposed by him could be correlated with the size of some small state, for example, Ireland, and there were no people willing to invest in the project.

Gauss was echoed by the Austrian astronomer Joseph von Littrow, who believed that life exists on the moon. He intended to attract the attention of the Selenites with the help of a giant trench in the Sahara Desert. He intended to fill it with kerosene and set it on fire at night. It took 5 million cubic meters of gasoline to fill one kilometer of the trench. This, as in the first case, made the project unfeasible.

In 1869, the French poet Charles Crow suggested using a giant mirror to collect Sun rays and point towards Mars. Crowe spent most of his life trying to get officials to implement his idea.

"World. Lenin. THE USSR"

The first message was sent on November 19, 1962 from the center of deep space communication in Evpatoria. It consisted of three words “Peace. Lenin. THE USSR". Formally, this was a test of equipment, but it seemed boring to scientists to send just signals, so a researcher at the IRE RAS suggested sending a romantic “Mir. Lenin. USSR" in Morse code.

The signal was successfully reflected from Venus and returned to Earth, but some of the information went into space and went to the constellation Libra (which contains three planets similar in structure to the Earth). So perhaps many light years from now we will get an alien “Uh, what?” response.

Message from Arecibo

The next message was sent in 1964 from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico (for which it got its name) to the constellation in the Hercules cluster. The authors of the message, Francis Drake (by the way, the author of the famous equation that allows you to calculate the number of planets in the Universe) and Carl Sagan (astronomer, exobiologist and the most famous popularizer of science in the West, such as Academician Kapitsa) encoded in it data on biochemistry, DNA structure, population earth, solar system and the Arecibo telescope itself. The message will reach potential recipients in 25 thousand years. And it will take the same amount of time to respond.

In 2001, in Hampshire (England), signs appeared on the fields repeating the message of Arecibo, only instead of a human figure, a humanoid with a large head (such as it is usually depicted in comics) was depicted. The authors of the Arecibo message said that the message in the margins is a clear fake, because everyone knows that any alien with even the slightest respect for himself will not leave messages in wheat, but will use the radio.

Message on Pioneer

Carl Sagan was the author of another message. In 1972 and 1973, anodized aluminum plates with a schematic representation of a man and a woman were sent aboard Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. Following this, Sagan was criticized for sending "obscenity" into space. We will be able to find out what aliens think about this in at least two million years, when the Pioneer reaches its destination - the brightest star Taurus - Aldebaran.

Message on Voyager

In order to somehow smooth out the awkwardness from indecent pictures, in 1977 another message was sent into space - two gilded records, a phonograph, a needle for playing them, and instructions. If it happened today, we would have to add another user agreement, at the end of which the alien mind would have to put a tick.

The records contained Eastern and Western classical music (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Stravinsky), dance music (Chuck Berry and Louis Armstrong). The disc also contains Georgian choral singing, ancient Chinese music and the singing of the peoples of New Guinea. Also, alien music lovers will hear sounds human speech and what you can find in the "Sounds of Nature" section: birdsong, the sound of the ocean, etc.

1.14. Message to extraterrestrial civilizations

The main focus of the SETI plan is to detection extraterrestrial civilizations (by receiving signals, searching for traces of astro-engineering activities, etc.). These are passive methods. Can you limit yourself to just them? It is logical to think that in order to achieve success, one should combine passive methods with active ones, that is, sending one's own messages to extraterrestrial civilizations. In § 1.6, we considered the strategy of S. E. Khaikin, based on the fact that a civilization that wants to connect to an interstellar communication system must send a signal about its readiness for this.

The need to combine passive and active methods Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov paid attention in search of the VC.

The first message to space was sent on November 19, 1962 from the Center for Deep Space Communications of the USSR in Yevpatoria during an experiment on Venus radar, on the initiative of O. N. Rzhiga; A radio telegraph message was sent, consisting of three words: "Peace, Lenin, USSR." The country that sent it has already left the stage of history, but radio waves continue to carry the message at the speed of light through the starry distances. Who knows, maybe someday a bowl of an alien antenna will stand in their way and creatures unknown to us will read three words mysterious to them ...

It was sent from the already familiar 300-meter radio telescope to the globular cluster M 13 in the constellation Hercules, located at a distance of about 25 thousand light years. years from the Sun. The beam of the radio telescope completely covers the entire cluster, numbering hundreds of thousands of stars. If at least one of them has a civilization capable of receiving radio signals, it can detect our message.

What is this message? It contains 1679 bits of information. Each bit is transmitted as a pulse at one of two close frequencies in the 2380 MHz band.

Rice. 1.14.1. Radio message from Arecibo to globular cluster M 13

If the pulses at one frequency are represented by zero, and at the other - by one, then we will receive a message consisting of 1679 binary characters, a fragment of which is reproduced in Fig. 1.14.1. The number 1679 is the product of two prime numbers: 23 and 73.

Rice. 1.14.2. Deciphering the Arecibo radio message (explanations in the text)

Our addressees must guess that this is not without reason: apparently, for decoding it is necessary to use a “television” scan of the image, consisting of 23 lines of 73 elements per line, or of 73 lines of 23 elements. To make this image visual, we will depict each "0" as a black square, and each "1" as a white one. Then we get the image shown in Fig. 1.14.2. It corresponds to the second variant (73 lines, 23 elements each) and is obviously not random (if we accept the first variant of the "sweep", then no "meaningful" picture is obtained). The picture on the right shows the transcript of the message. In the first row, the numbers of the natural series from 1 to 10 are shown in binary code. The second row is the labels of the numbers. The third row contains the numbers: 1, 6, 7, 8, 15; these are the atomic numbers of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus - the chemical elements that underlie earthly life. This is followed by 12 groups, each of which consists of 5 elements - these are molecules important for life and consisting of the above elements: the numbers depict the chemical formulas of these molecules. For example, the 5th group does not contain hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen atoms, but contains 4 oxygen atoms and 1 phosphorus atom, therefore, this is the PO4 phosphate group. The most important molecules include 4 nucleotides: thymine, guanine, adenine, cytosine (with the help of which hereditary information is encoded), a deoxyribose sugar molecule, etc. Under these groups, the DNA double helix is ​​shown (6th row). The number of nucleotides in DNA (about 4 billion) is shown in the center of the helix - row 5. Below is a figure of a man. Since the double helix ends on a schematic representation of a person, this, according to the authors of the message, should indicate the connection of DNA with intelligent beings who transmitted the message. To the right of the figure of a man is the number 14, indicating the height of a person. In this case, the wavelength of the radio emission carrying the message is taken as a unit of length. It is equal to 12.6 cm. Thus, the height of a person here is 12.6 cm x 14 \u003d 176 cm. To the left of the human figure, the number 4 ∙ 109 is the number of the human race at the time the message was sent. Below (in the 10th row) is a diagram of the solar system. It can be seen that it contains 9 planets. The third planet is singled out from the general series, which indicates its special role; since it is close to man, it can be concluded that it is on this planet that the intelligent beings who sent the message live. Finally, at the very bottom, a diagram of the Arecibo radio telescope is shown and its diameter is indicated - 306 m.

The globular cluster in the constellation Hercules is number 13 in the catalog compiled by III. Messier in 1781 (hence his designation M 13). Playing with this designation, the poet Julian Dolgy wrote the following joking poem about this message:

Messier, wow!
Mon cher ami!
God knows if you exist or not.
But we are human
And a cosmic hello helmet.
We have one head
And two arms and two legs.
Messages of our word Will Messier master brains?

Rice. 1.14.3. Message to extraterrestrial civilizations on the Pioneer-10 spacecraft. Top left - photo of the authors of the message: K. Sagan, L. Sagan and F. Drake

Two years before the radio message to the constellation Hercules, an attempt was made to send a message of a different kind to extraterrestrial civilizations. This message is on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. It was launched in 1972 to explore the outer planets of the solar system. In 1979, the apparatus crossed the orbit of Uranus and is currently located at the borders of the solar system. It will take him 100,000 years to travel the distance to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. Wandering in interstellar space, the ship may someday fall into the habitat of another civilization. The probability of this event, given how sparsely distributed stars are in space, is vanishingly small, but not zero! With this chance in mind, the ship's designers considered it possible to provide it with the text of a message from Earth.

It is a 15 x 25 cm plate with a picture engraved on it, which is fixed on board the ship. In the upper left corner of the plate () is a diagram of hydrogen with parallel and antiparallel orientation of the proton and electron spins. If extraterrestrial physicists unravel our plan, they will understand that we are talking about a spectral transition, during which a 21 cm hydrogen radio line is emitted. This allows you to immediately establish the units of length and time: the unit of length is 21 cm, the unit of time is the period corresponding to the frequency of the hydrogen radio line 1420 MHz. Under the hydrogen atom is placed a figure consisting of several rays emanating from one point. The binary numbers above each beam indicate the value of some parameter. Judging by the number of significant digits, this parameter is determined with very high accuracy. The only such parameter can be only the period of pulsars. So, each beam indicates the direction from our star (the Sun) to the corresponding pulsar. And since their astronomers know the direction to the same pulsars from their star, they can determine the position of the Sun relative to their star. But that is not all. The period of pulsars changes with time. By comparing the values ​​of the periods indicated on the diagram with those known to them, alien astronomers will be able to determine the era of the message. To the right of the scheme with pulsars, against the background spaceship(already known to aliens) depicts the inhabitants of the Earth - men and women. The binary number on the right indicates the height of the woman: it is equal to 8 units. Since a wavelength of 21 cm is taken as a unit of length, the woman’s height is 21 cm x 8 \u003d 168 cm. Below is a diagram of the solar system of 9 planets. The third planet is selected from the general row and it is shown that it was from it that the spacecraft that delivered the message started.

Much richer information addressed to extraterrestrial civilizations is on board the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft. They were also launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets of the solar system. With the help of these devices, magnificent photographs of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as their satellites, were obtained. Having completed its mission near Saturn, Voyager 1 headed for the edges of the solar system, and Voyager 2, having performed a gravitational maneuver, passed near Uranus and Neptune. He received photographs of these distant planets, their satellites (some of them were discovered thanks to Voyager) and transmitted to Earth a lot of valuable information about Uranus and Neptune. Now it is also moving towards the edges of the solar system.

On board each device is an information plate with a recording of audio and video signals. The plate is covered with gold to prevent erosion under the influence of space dust(). What does the message contain? 75% of the record is devoted to music. According to the authors of the message, the ship itself, with its sophisticated scientific equipment and computers, will be sufficient evidence of our technical development. But he will not say anything about the aesthetic or philosophical aspects of the human personality. Music seems to be a good means of expressing these aspects. The recording includes works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Stravinsky, Western light music (jazz, rock and roll, blues), classical music of India, Java, Japan, ancient Chinese work for seven-string guitar, folk music of Peru, Bulgaria, Australia, Africa , melodies of the peoples of the Soviet Union: Russian songs, Azerbaijani music for bagpipes and Georgian choral singing. The remaining 25% of the Voyager message recording consists of human voices, various sounds Earth (wind noise, lapping waves, birdsong) and 116 drawings encoded into a video signal. Human voices are recorded in the form of greetings in the 55 most common languages ​​of the Earth.

At the top left is an enlarged view of an aluminum container with an information plate, on the lid of which instructions for using the plate are engraved.

Rice. 1.14.5. Fragment of Voyager's musical message

Rice. 1.14.6. A fragment of the Voyager message with greetings from the inhabitants of the Earth

On fig. 1.14.6, a fragment with a greeting text is reproduced, which contains a greeting in Russian: “Hello, I welcome you!”.

The drawings, photographs and diagrams sent to Voyager in the form of a video signal are arranged in a certain order, making it easier to decipher the images. In order to transmit scientific information, it is first necessary to agree on a way to express quantitative ratios. Shown is an example of teaching Earth arithmetic. The dots on the frame represent quantities (numbers) from 1 to 6, next to them is an image of these numbers in binary and decimal number systems. An example of writing large numbers using the power of 10 (1000 = 10 3) is shown. Next, operations on numbers (including integers and fractions) are introduced.

The next step is associated with the introduction of units of measurement of basic physical quantities (). The figure at the top left shows the already familiar diagram of a hydrogen atom emitting a radio link at a frequency of 1420 MHz. The oscillation period corresponding to this frequency is taken as a unit of time. In relation to it, a second, a day, a year are determined. The mass of the hydrogen atom is taken as a unit of mass, in relation to it the following are determined: gram, kilogram, mass of the Earth. To the right of the diagram of the hydrogen atom, a section of a sinusoid with a wavelength of 21 cm is shown, which is taken as a unit of length. In relation to it are defined: centimeter, angstrom, meter, kilometer.

Rice. 1.14.9. Voyager message. Information about the solar system.

The large circle at the top left represents the Sun, followed by the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Saturn and Uranus have rings. The numbers under each planet mean: size in km, distance from the Sun, mass expressed in units of the mass of the Earth, and the period of rotation around its own axis, in Earth days. Data for Pluto is not accurate

What Lomberg said about the Voyager messages can also be applied to radio messages. 25 years have passed since the Arecibo Message was sent, and only then radio transmissions from the Earth to our distant brothers were resumed as part of the international Cosmic Call project. It is part of the larger Encounter 2001 project. The initiator of the project, American businessman Charles Chafer, offered to implement it on a commercial basis, attracting private funds from the project participants. The essence of "Cosmic Call" is to transmit radio messages to the nearest stars using a powerful planetary radar. Anyone who pays 15 US dollars can get on the list of participants, this gives him the right to send an individual message not exceeding 30 words. It was assumed that planetary radars in Arecibo or Goldstone would be used to transmit messages. However, due to the extreme workload of the instruments, these plans could not be implemented. Then A. L. Zaitsev from the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (IRE RAS), working on a radar installed at the focus of a 70-meter antenna in Evpatoria (under the program to protect the Earth from asteroids), suggested using this locator in the Cosmic Call project.

Rice. 1.14.10. Voyager message. Chemical bases of life

In the period from May 24 to July 1, 1999, 4 sessions of information transmission were carried out from Evpatoria to four solar-type stars.

Beginning, UT
End, UT
Distance, St. years

The message is in two parts. The first part contains the main message and several auxiliary ones. The second part is the names and individual letters of the project participants (about 50,000). The main message consists of 23 pages. Each page is a sequence of 16129 (127x127) binary characters. The first few pages are introductory: page 1: "Numbers", page 2: "Operations", page 3: "Exponential representations", then there are information on astronomy, biology, geography. Page 21 describes the antenna and transmitter of the Yevpatoriya radar. The last page invites anyone who has read the message to respond and, if possible, provide information about their civilization. In addition to the main message (of 23 pages), the first part of the Evpatoria Message contains a description of the Encounter 2001 project (compiled by Richard Braastad), a list of the personnel involved in this project, and, finally, the Arecibo Message is included in the first part. The total volume of the Evpatoria Epistle is more than 1.7 million binary units.

The commercial basis of "Cosmic Call" raises certain doubts, since it seems preferable that in cosmic contact, at least at the stage of its establishment, civilizations, and not individual individuals, act as the subject. On the other hand, this organization of the project makes it possible to draw the attention of the general public to it, which can be useful for the purposes of SETI. Be that as it may, the project reflects the current level of consciousness of our earthly civilization.

Doubts are sometimes expressed about active search methods, especially about the transmission of messages through communication channels - for fear that in this way our civilization may find itself in the face of formidable and powerful inhabitants of the Cosmos. These fears are based on the historical experience of the interaction of civilizations on Earth. Until now, the interaction proceeded in such a way that a stronger civilization sought to subjugate a weaker one. To what extent can this be extended to space civilizations? In the pursuit of subjugation, humanity has come to a dangerous line, putting itself on the brink of self-destruction. Therefore, one can think that the emergence of new thinking, the most important element of which is the transition from confrontation to cooperation, is not accidental. Apparently, there is a certain connection between the level of development, the level of knowledge of civilization and its moral state. Moreover, the connection is not reverse (as often happened on Earth), but direct: that is, the higher the level of development of a civilization, the level of its knowledge and culture, the higher its moral principles should be87. This law inevitably comes into force when civilizations reach a certain stage of development, for knowledge in immoral hands becomes destructive and inevitably leads to self-destruction.

“Knowledge and morality are two facets,
In unity, speakers are clear.
So that the higher knowledge is revealed to people,
They need high morality.
And to be moral, knowledge is necessary -
Why do we need this morality. Then
We consciously apply it in the heart
And we will open the way to knowledge for ourselves.

However, fears of detecting yourself using radio signals are unfounded for other reasons. Indeed, if certain civilizations are capable of posing a threat to humanity, they must be sufficiently developed scientifically and technically. Therefore, their information about the surrounding space does not depend on our SETI activity. In particular, our civilization is easy to detect by the radio emission of television stations (not to mention other detection methods available to a highly developed civilization).

One of those who strongly disagreed with the position - to limit our SETI activity only to the search for EC signals, was A. D. Sakharov. In response to a CETI questionnaire in 1971, he wrote: “In doing so, I would like to point out the importance design work by sending signals, brought to the concrete implementation of some projects - only in this way can one understand the subtle aspects of the problem of contacts. Here, as in other matters, the egoists end up losing” (Earth and Universe, 1990, no. 6, pp. 63-67).

Another objection to signaling is that we will receive an answer to our message (if there is one at all) at best in many decades. Concerning this issue, A. L. Zaitsev writes: “Can’t the selfless messianic activity that brings the good news “You are not alone!” to brothers in mind, and their illumination by the stunning discovery of the artificial origin of our message, in themselves cannot be worthy goals of earthlings and justification broadcasting for VC? Imagine for a moment us in their place and our breakthrough to infinity after the detection of the EC signal. So why not give that chance to others?” Indeed - why?

At the end of the 20th century, the children of the Earth decided to send their message to the Cosmos. In July 2000, the International Meeting "Children of Europe in the 21st Century" was held in Moscow. In preparation for the Meeting, a group of children from the Moscow City Palace of Children and Youth Creativity decided to prepare a Message to extraterrestrial civilizations from the children of the Earth and began to prepare it. The initiative group included Vyacheslav Avdeev, Anatoly Anikeev, Tatyana Anikeeva, Andrey Gutiontov, Egor Kiselev, Victoria Putansh and Vladimir Filippov. Within the framework of the Meeting itself, the section “Message to extraterrestrial civilizations” worked, which discussed the draft Message and submitted it for consideration by the Meeting. It was decided to continue working on the Message, connecting everyone to it via the Internet. The project participants agreed that the Message should contain information about our civilization, about those who send it. At the same time, the Message should reflect a child's view of the world and its problems. The content of the Message includes a text part, drawing, music and a description (algorithm) of some games.

It was decided to include in the text a list of keywords that are important for our civilization and reflect a child's view of the problem. The list includes the following 14 words: Mom, Peace, Earth, Space, Contact, Mind, Life, Joy, Friendship, Love, Communication, Freedom, Children, Man.

After lengthy discussions and selection, it was decided to include three games in the game part: checkers, chess and tic-tac-toe. All of them reflect the intellectual world of a person, and tic-tac-toe, in addition, is also loved by children and easy to convey.

Rice. 1.14.11. Emblem of the message of the EC from the children of the Earth

The graphic part of the Message, which also serves as its emblem, is the most carefully developed (Fig. 1.4.11). Its authors are Vladimir Filippov and Yegor Kiselev. When constructing a drawing-emblem, the value of the carrier wavelength of the Evpatoria locator is 6 cm, as well as the conversion of this frequency using the number 3 as an integer part π .

The central part of the emblem is the face of an earthling, placed in a circle with a diameter of 6 cm, which is equal to the carrier wavelength already known to the recipient, this sets the scale for determining other linear quantities. The next circle is bordered by a wavy line, the wavelength of which also corresponds to the carrier wave of the Message 6 cm, which is an additional clue. The third circle, on which the symbolic figures of little men are depicted, is an image surfaces planets inhabited by mankind. Its diameter is three times the diameter of the first circle and is equal to 18 cm, which corresponds to the wavelength of hydroxyl radio lines. If the number of little men (54) is divided by 3 (the approximate value of the number π ), we get again the number 18, which indicates its importance in the structure of the Epistle. If the recipients guess that this is the wavelength of the hydroxyl line in our units, they will be able to establish the relationship between the units of length in their system and ours. A wavy line is depicted below the surface, its wavelength is 1.35 cm, which corresponds to the wavelength of the radio line of water and, therefore, indicates water as an important element for life on Earth. In addition, this indicates the existence of a hydrosphere, the inhabitants of which are symbolically represented by figures of dolphins. The inhabitants of the atmosphere (birds) are depicted above the surface of the Earth, and thus the concept of the suitability of the air environment of the planet for life is given.

The outer circle is bordered by 10 circles, which contain scientific information, as well as information about other areas of human activity. Each of these circles has a diameter of 6 cm, which again brings us back to the carrier wavelength and confirms the accepted scale. The number of circles symbolizes the decimal number system adopted on Earth. (The deep meaning of ten - decade is revealed in Pythagorean mathematics, probably known to aliens.) At the top of each circle there are vertical sticks: I, II, III, IIII, ... ΙΙΙΙΙΙΙΙΙΙ. It is easy to understand that these are the numbers of the natural series. If after each such number we put the sign "=" and after it the symbols 1,2, 3,4, ..., 10 (1 = 1, II = 2, III = 3, ΙΙΙΙ = 4, ..., SHISHI = 10), then we can guess that the symbol “=” common to all denotes the equality relation, and the symbols following it denote the natural numbers in the number system accepted on Earth. Since the last number is two-digit, this indicates that we have adopted a decimal number system.

The first circle depicts what our Galaxy looks like when viewed edge-on; the arrow shows the position of the solar system. The second circle depicts a diagram of the solar system; the figurine of a man on the third planet indicates that the message came from there. The planet itself is depicted on the third circle. The outlines of the continents and the oceans are visible; the continents are depicted in black, the oceans in white (this, of course, is arbitrary: aliens can depict, on the contrary, the continents in white, and the ocean in black). A figurine of a man on one of the continents indicates that people live on land. The same circle shows schematically the Earth's natural satellite, the Moon. The 4th circle depicts life on Earth, its main kingdoms: plant, animal and man. The fifth circle reproduces the famous "Drake cosmogram". It depicts a human family (dad, mom and me). It is shown that the family has two origins. Unlike Drake's cosmogram, the child figure is highlighted here - this symbolizes the fact that this message comes from children. The 6th circle depicts the earthly house of a person; it is on the same diameter as the circle where our Galaxy is depicted - the cosmic home of mankind. The 7th circle depicts the human body in the proportions of the golden section. The 8th mug depicts the oldest cosmogonic symbol from the Chinese "Book of Changes". In the center is the well-known symbol of Yang and Yin, and the dashes around it are 8 main trigrams, symbolizing the life cycle. The inclusion of this symbol in the Message, according to the authors, in addition to the philosophical content, demonstrates our respect for antiquity, for the values ​​of other cultures, which should be very important in interstellar contacts. The 9th circle shows the game of "tic and toe" (the game is part of human culture). The figure shows two outcomes of this game: when the zeros win, and when the crosses win. Finally, the last, 10th circle is devoted to technology; moreover, from a multitude of technical achievements, a radio telescope was chosen, since with the help of it the Message was realized.

The same procedure as in the "Message of Arecibo" can be used to transfer the emblem.

The musical part of the Message includes 8 melodies proposed by the same guys who made up the emblem of the Message - Egor Kiselev and Vladimir Filippov. When selecting works, they were guided not by personal sympathies, but by the desire to tell with the help of music about emotions, feelings, and creative abilities of the bearer of reason on Earth.

According to the initial drafts, a melody was chosen as a call sign romance by E. Shashin to the verses of M. Yu. Lermontov “I go out alone on the road”, which contains such wonderful words: "... And the star speaks to the star", which can be an epigraph to the entire project. Followed by Finale of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th symphony to the words of Schiller's ode "To Joy". According to the authors, this work reveals the essence of each person and all of humanity, its humanistic ideas and psychology. The third section of the musical message - Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. The authors justify their choice as follows: “... the whole picture is an 8-minute sunrise, where wide and melodious chords vividly describe fog and clouds to us, and fluent passages - the rays of the sun breaking through the fog. Why not a landscape representation of our planet? Another landscape sketch: Antonio Vivaldi The Seasons. March". Allegro. In addition to the image of nature, music carries a joyful spring positive mood of an earthly person. Then follows Etude No. 12 opus 10 "revolutionary" by Frederic Chopin. Here you can hear confusion, pain, anger and despair from impotence to do anything; and at the same time, on top of all this gamut of feelings - a call to fight. The authors believe that this work is worthy of being sent as "a pure example of human emotions, not burdened by any images." The rest of the works are still under discussion. Supposed to include a song Alexander Dolsky "Fulfillment of desires" and two children's songs. First "Eagle Galaxy". Music by an unknown author, lyrics by Viktor Makarov. The song, born in the pioneer camp "Eaglet", speaks of the friendship of the highly developed inhabitants of our planet (humans and dolphins) and the dreams of the eaglets, aspiring to the stars. The inclusion of this song in the Message marks the fact of the realization of the Eagle's dream. Second song - Vladimir Lantsberg "Scarlet Sails". Here we are talking about one of the most beautiful human feelings - about love, and also about faith (not about superstition, but about faith) in miracles. Finally, in the musical part of the Message, the guys included a musical interpretation of the encephalogram of the human brain, performed by Yegor Kiselev. It is envisaged that other melodies can be added here at the suggestion of the project participants.

Now, as these lines are being written (November 2000), the Message is not yet complete. Probably, its main ideas will still be preserved and, perhaps, means will be found for its transfer to space.

The idea to use music and games in the exchange of information between space civilizations belongs to the remarkable Soviet astrophysicist Viktoriy Favlovich Shvartsman. He expressed it in 1975 at the Zelenchuk CETI school-seminar, but he managed to publish it much later (the first publication dates back to 1983, the next - to 1986). Justifying the expediency of transferring games, Schwartzman noted that the rules of the games have a very small length in bits, but they carry gigantic information about all the games that have ever been played and that, in general, can be played. By passing on the rules of the game, we kind of give our partners the key to all the billions of games, and then the game itself reveals its wealth in the process of functioning. The very design of games (say, the number of cells on a chess field of the order of 10 2) allows us to draw important conclusions about the functioning of our brain, and the transmission of several samples of games played between people gives very subtle information about what modern people are. Of particular interest for judging the features of the human psyche are those games where, along with logic, chance plays a significant role (dominoes, preference, etc.), or even those where the result, in general, does not depend on logic (lottery, roulette). “Games,” Schwartzman writes, “reflect typical methods of thinking, inclinations of characters, values, etc.”

The transfer of works of art, and above all music, allows you to communicate important information about yourself. So our music or poetry can tell a highly developed civilization much more about the structure of the human psyche than the data of neurophysiology and neuropsychology, Shvartsman believes. With differences in the levels of civilizations, the diversity and multilevel nature of works of art plays an important role. Scientific communication, as a rule, is built on a hierarchical principle. The omission of one or another part of the message - due to technical interference or for some other reason, for example, due to a linguistic misunderstanding of the text - makes it difficult or even completely excludes the possibility of understanding most of the following parts. This does not apply to works of art.

As for the technical side of the transfer of music to extraterrestrial civilizations, then, according to A. L. Zaitsev, the best way to implement it is to use theremin. This unique musical instrument was invented by the remarkable scientist and engineer Lev Sergeevich Termen in 1918. It consists of two identical self-oscillators - a reference one and one controlled by smooth movements of the performer's hand near the antenna. The difference frequency of the generators is the generated melody. So - it's one of a kind contactless electrical musical instrument. The theremin generates a narrow-band quasi-sinusoidal signal with smooth frequency modulation without phase discontinuities when changing frequencies, which makes it optimal for detecting and isolating space noise. For radiation into outer space via a radio channel, the theremin signal must be transferred up in frequency to the centimeter range.

Developing Schwartzman's ideas, Zaitsev notes that music is more universal and understandable than ordinary "logical" languages. It conveys the emotional states of a person, and this is very valuable and timeless information about earthlings and our civilization as a whole, it is unique, like any creative work is unique and obviously unknown to the subscriber. Zaitsev suggested preparing the First Theremin Concerto and transmitting it into space either directly or as a recording from Arecibo or Evpatoria. It is possible that the concert (if it takes place) will include works from the Children's Message to Extraterrestrial Civilizations.

Lomberg J. Voyager's Interstellar Message / The Problem of Searching for Life in the Universe. - M.: Nauka, 1986. S. 242-247. Cit. S. 247.

Gindilis L.M. Extraterrestrial civilizations: the twentieth century // Social sciences and modernity. 2001. No. 1. S. 138-147.

Sidorov V.M. Return. Collection of poems. -M.: Sov. writer, 1980.

Zaitsev A.L. Radio Broadcasting for Extraterrestrial Civilizations // SETI Information Bulletin. 1999. No. 15. S. 31-47.

The transmission of the message took place in late August-early September 2001 using a powerful transmitter installed on a 70-meter antenna P-2500 of the National Center for Control and Testing of Space Facilities of Ukraine (the former Center for Deep Space Communications of the USSR). See: Gindilis L.M. The signal was sent: the first children's radio message to extraterrestrial civilizations// Earth and the Universe. 2002. No. 5. S. 82-96.

These images appeared on August 14, 2001 in Chilbolton, near Verwell, Hampshire (England).

On August 14, 2001, near the radio telescope located in Chilbolton, near Verwell in Hampshire (UK), two large and stunning images appeared in a grain field. In the style of the already well-known "cereal circles", they are drawn with the help of mysteriously flattened ears. One of them looks like a message sent by earthlings in 1974, and the other is the face of a humanoid.

Fintan Dunne, Editor of Psyopnews, in an article titled "First Contact: Chilbolton ET Message Deciphered," writes: Humanity. We deciphered their answer:

“Hello Earth We are responding to your message in which you portrayed yourself - we understand this message. We, too, are a hydrocarbon life form. We have similar mathematics and logic. However, we have a different DNA structure. We are shorter than you, with very large heads. In our solar system we inhabit three planets and the moon. To transmit this message to you, we did not use a radio telescope, but a telepathic beam technology, to receive your message, we used the possibilities of superspace and also used superspace in order to answer you "...

The response to the message sent in 1974 by Carl Sagan caused a SHOCK among scientists... The response message from space (fig. on the left) was like a picture sent from Earth in binary code as a radio telescope signal (fig. on the right). Extraterrestrial Civilizations received this signal, deciphered it, understood its meaning, and sent a response message in exactly the same style, but not in the form of a radio signal, but in the form of a huge pictogram, which was "imposed" on the field next to a similar radio telescope. As a matter of fact, an outstanding event of the entire History of Mankind took place - Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Civilizations of the Universe for the first time responded to the message of the Earth.

The famous astrophysicists Carl Sagan and Frank Drake worked on the news to aliens 32 years ago. They encrypted information about us humans and fired it from a radio telescope in Puerto Rico towards the M13 star cluster in the constellation Hercules. It is located about 28 thousand light years from the Sun. In graphical form, the signal was a picture-matrix of 73 rows and 23 columns. The answer was expected in 47574. But it looks like he came early.

The Chilbolton Letter has as many rows and columns as ours. But the information is different. For example, a man is depicted as some kind of humanoid with a large head. Silicon has been added to the information about the chemical elements from which earthlings are "built". The double helix of DNA is supplemented with one more thread, and the DNA molecule itself is supplemented with an extra million bases.

However, neither the government of England, nor any other government of the states of the planet reacted in any way to this outstanding event, on the contrary: - they did everything to hide the truth about the Life of the Universe from the people of the Earth, and the lie paid by the governments continues to be broadcast through the channels of world and national media about the fact that the Earth is alone in the Universe, and there is no life in the Cosmos ...

Comments:
Goryaev ... - a geneticist. “As a geneticist, I can tell you that no, comrades, not everything is voiced in the DNA molecule.
You see, they showed us that we are mistaken, that our genetics does not reflect the truth, and they showed their own DNA molecule. Honored nobel prize deciphering human DNA, according to aliens, is a fiction, more precisely, it is only 2 percent of what could be deciphered!
Here they show us that their DNA works, not only because it works for us, but they also use a completely different principle of work, different. . . Or rather, something we don't know about.
The geneticist believes that an alien intelligence has long possessed the complete formula of our DNA, but believes that we are not yet ready to use it, because it will destroy human civilization.

On August 15, 2002, a pictogram of
the face of a Gray space humanoid and holding a CD-ROM, on which a message in English was encrypted with a binary code in the form of zeros and ones (empty and filled squares). Apparently, no one will dare to say that this drawing was made by pranksters - pensioners at night. Image, 360 feet long (about 110 m) and 250 feet wide (76.2 meters).

In this message, they warned Mankind about the danger of some false pictograms, about the future of the Earth and that it is close, and also about their destiny. This is how this text is read on disk:

“BE AFRAID, THE FALSE GIFTS OF THE GIVERS AND THEIR BROKEN PROMISES. A LOT OF PAIN, BUT THERE IS STILL TIME.
SOMEONE NEAR THERE IS GOOD. WE RESIST THE LIES. End of communication - call - bell.

It is worth noting that the field is on top of a hill and the image area is not visible from any of the nearby roads. In fact, even at a distance of 50 m from the image, it is hardly possible to see anything. At a distance of about 100 meters from the image there is a radio mast about 40 m high. Attempts to communicate via RADIO and TV were made in 1929 and 1977, but, unfortunately, they were not taken seriously either ...

In 1929, an unusual radio transmission was caught on a wave of 75 meters. Someone who introduced himself as a messenger of an alien civilization and called himself NIKOMO, on different languages for two hours I read the memorandum, now called the Message of the CON. KOH's third message to mankind... The transmission was only for one day. This was partly mentioned in Brad Steiger's book "Meetings with the Alien" /1977/ and the Soviet television program "UFO: Unannounced Visit" in 1990. Interestingly, a similar situation was repeated on November 27, 1977 southwest of London. On the territory, which is a circle with a diameter of 120 kilometers, there was a violation of television broadcasting. The image from the screens disappeared, and an unknown voice said that he was a representative of an extraterrestrial civilization, that earthly civilization is on the wrong path, earthlings need to destroy all the weapons of evil, there is very little time left for this, and if people do not take the necessary actions, they will have to leave the limits Galaxies. The London television specialists who investigated this case claimed that, generally speaking, they had no idea what kind of pranksters could be able to realize it. Such an action requires very bulky and expensive equipment. Information about the incident was broadcast by the Voice of America radio station and Soviet radio on November 28, 1977 in the evening International Panorama. It was pointed out that in connection with him, the representative of the British police assured the listeners that the "alien" would soon appear before the earthlings in the dock. However, these assurances remained empty words ...

The next Fourth Address of CON to Humanity (1996). Comments.

An image of a CD on which a message in English was encrypted in binary code.

The icon is very similar to a binary CD with start and end markers. The information is represented by 8-bit segments separated by narrow synchronizer segments. The information is read in a spiral from the center to the edge and is a set of ASCII characters in the international English encoding. There is an empty separator between each track of data Those who work on a computer, I hope, do not need to explain what this is.

Transcribed original text in English

"Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES.
Much PAIN but still time.
EELRIJUE.
There is GOOD out there.
We OPpose DECEPTION.
Conduit CLOSING"

In a free translation into Russian: "Fear the Danes who bring gifts" or

"Beware of the givers of false gifts and their empty promises
A lot of pain has been delivered, but it's still EELRIJUE time.
There is a GOOD
We resist deception.
Channel closed [call]"


Today it is believed that about 30% of crop circles are created by people. However, the problem is that no fake circle contains the set of features that real crop circles contain.

The problem with crop circle falsification is that the wheat must be pressed down with some physical object that will surely break the ears. In the real figures, the ears are not broken, but only bent about an inch from the ground, where the first knee of the ear is. It appears that the plants are briefly exposed to heat, which softens them, and causes them to lean towards the ground at almost a right angle, where they become rigid again. Mankind does not know the technologies with which it would be possible to do this.

In addition, crop circle falsifiers cannot reproduce such signs as the thickening of the ear, and the expansion of its knot, changes in the germ in cereals, and the appearance of cavities in plants, as if they were heated from the inside. In these figures, changes in the cellular structure are observed, however, the plant does not die, and continues to grow. Not a single fake has been able to reproduce this

Unlike real crop circles, in fakes, the ears are simply dumped in different directions and trampled on, and, of course, broken. The ears of "crop circles" are twisted into a spiral, which uses the same logarithmic proportions as in the Fibonacci numbers or the golden ratio, which, however, can also be found in nature, for example, in a shell or a ram's horn. The bottom of the figure can have up to five layers, and the wheat in each layer is twisted in the direction opposite to the previous one. Each spike in them lies neatly next to the other. In the center of the circle, the ears can intertwine in a cunning way, and often there can be only one upright ear in the center (usually there is an untouched bunch of ears in the center).

Another feature of real crop circles is the increased infrared radiation inside and outside the figure. Also, in the manufacture of a real circle, mysterious forces use extremely complex forms of Euclidean geometry, changing the magnetic structure of space. Compasses can't tell which is north and which is south, cameras, Cell phones and the batteries do not function, and the aircraft's instruments begin to fool when flying over the "crop circles" figure, (Most likely, the change in the magnetic structure has nothing to do with it, and the same unknown field or radiation is to blame here as in anomalous zones- approx. Translator) Geiger counters show an increase in radiation about three times compared to the normal background.

Animals from nearby farms avoid crop circle locations even before the figure appears.

Real crop circles also like to be placed on top of the energy lines of the Earth, repeating the energy pattern of the area. They can be "scanned" with a vine. Even when the crop is harvested, and the next year the field is again plowed and sown, the dowser will be able to determine the place where the figure was.

AND HERE IS A NEW READING OF THE MESSAGE FROM AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR:

Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES.
Much PAIN but still time.
BELIEVE!
There is GOOD out there.
We oppose DEEPTION.
Conduit CLOSING.

Beware of those who bring false gifts (goods, freedoms, hopes) and their unfulfilled (or unfulfilled) promises.
1. (still - still, for now) A lot of pain, but time goes by.
2. (still - calm) A lot of pain, but favorable times (fertile ground for change).
Believe! There (will be) good. (out there in this case is understood not as a place, but as a time, i.e. not there, but then; although, regarding such matters, it can be one and the same)
We are against this kind of communication (we do not support deepening this dialogue).
The communication channel is closed.

If we discard all the "water", then it turns out:

Do not trust scoundrels and their false promises.
A lot of grief and suffering, but you have to wait (time favors).
Believe! Everything will (end) well.
We will not go deep, we are closing the communication channel.

Eng.
Do not trust scoundrels and their false promises.
A lot of sorrow and suffering, but you have to wait ("time heals").
Believe! All will be (will end) well.
Don`t wait for continuation (contacts or explanations), data channel closed.

There is another message here, consisting of words with capital letters, which is more understandable and conveys the same meaning, but in a more concise form:

FALSE, BROKEN PROMISES, PAIN.
BELIEVE GOOD!
DEEP CLOSING.

FALSE (words), DECEPTION (actions), PAIN.
BELIEVE IN GOOD!
TRANSFER COMPLETE.

In the 2002 Crabwood Message opposition to Chilbolton 2001 I do not see. Perhaps there was an idea to expose earthly scammers, but I don’t think that THAT mind would have reacted to such tricks and would have justified itself. Rather, if we assume that both messages do not belong to a person, this is more like how a more developed civilization (some kind of “controlling body”) gave a stick to a less developed one for such close contact (the answer to Arecibo’s message is a clear manifestation of the presence of ANOTHER mind) with "not yet ready" humanity and sent her message, putting a bullet in this kind of "correspondence".

Since the middle of the 20th century, mankind has made several attempts to get acquainted with alien civilizations. We sent radio messages and records into space aboard ships, and today some of them have already left the solar system. The most interesting thing about them is the logic by which their contents were selected: perhaps it will say much more about humanity than all the photographs, records and drawings put together. T&P recall the Arecibo signal, Voyager's golden disk, and other space letters.

First attempt: "Mir", "Lenin", "USSR""

The first ever radio message from earthlings to extraterrestrial civilizations was sent in November 1962 from the Evpatoria Center for Deep Space Communications. It read: "Peace. Lenin. THE USSR". The scientists used a powerful transmitter that operated at a wavelength of 39 cm; the addressee of the signal was the planet Venus, which reflected it, which made it possible to check the performance of the radar. In 1966, from the center of Evpatoria, through Venus, together with specialists from Great Britain, Soviet scientists sent another message: “USSR. England. Friendship".

Today, mankind's short (and probably unreadable) first interstellar letter is heading towards the orange giant HD 131336 in the constellation of Libra. The distance to this star is 2 million 158 thousand light years. At the moment, of these, the radio signal has traveled 52 light years. It is noteworthy that it is in the constellation of Libra that the star Gliese 581 is located, around which three conditionally habitable exoplanets revolve. The most interesting of them is Gliese 581 s discovered in 2007: here the acceleration of free fall is 1.6 g, and the surface temperature fluctuates between +3 and +40⁰C.

Big Radio Letter: Arecibo Message

November 16, 1974 from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, in honor of the opening of a powerful radio telescope, scientists sent the first large and truly informative radio message to extraterrestrial civilizations. It was developed by Frank Drake, the author of the famous equation that theoretically allows you to calculate the number of advanced civilizations in the galaxy, and Carl Sagan, an American pioneer in the field of exobiology, an astronomer whose work gave impetus to the development of the SETI project to search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

The Arecibo message lasted 169 seconds and was transmitted at a wavelength of 12.5 cm. When finished, it had the shape of a rectangle, and with the correct arrangement, the number density was constant, but not with the wrong one. The letter reflected numbers from one to 10 in the binary system, atomic numbers (the number of protons in atomic nucleus) hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus, molecular formulas components of nucleotides in human DNA, the number of nucleotide pairs in the genome and the shape of the DNA molecule, brief information about man and humanity, information about the solar system, the radio telescope and the size of its transmitting antenna.

Even if there really are contactees “on the other end of the line”, it will take about 25 thousand years to deliver the Arecibo message, and the same amount to answer. This letter has been criticized many times, ranging from doubts that its rectangular shape can in principle be deciphered if you are not from Earth (where rectangles are much more common than, say, the honeycomb shape familiar to insects), and ending with the fact that the recipient must be able to perceive the information optically. It has also been suggested that decryption requires too many mathematical tricks.

In 2001, not far from the radio telescope in Chilbolton (Hampshire, UK), an “answer” to the Arecibo message appeared: a similar-looking message left on the field with the help of crushed ears. Instead of a human figure, it featured a humanoid figure with a large head - the so-called "gray" with large eyes and a small jaw, familiar to us from science fiction films. Then the “answer” made a lot of noise, but the authors of the SETI project stated that it is a fake, because, firstly, it is not clear why an advanced extraterrestrial civilization did not use radio waves, choosing a short-lived “cereal graphics”, and, secondly, the DNA of the authors "Chilbolton's messages" looked too much like a human one, although silicon, declared at the beginning of the message, did not appear in the list of nucleotides.

Nude: Pioneer Records

Carl Sagan became the author of another message to extraterrestrial civilizations - graphics on anodized aluminum plates launched into space aboard Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 in 1972 and 1973. Here are a naked man and woman against the background of a spaceship carrying a record (in one scale), a map of the Milky Way pulsars, which shows the distance from them and from the center of the galaxy to the Sun, the two main states of the hydrogen atom and a diagram of the solar system with a mark where it came from "Pioneer". Each plate is 22.9 cm wide, 15.2 cm high and 1.27 mm thick.

This work by Sagan has been repeatedly criticized both for its excessive anthropocentricity and for the fact that "NASA sent obscenity into space." The arrow that marks the direction of the ship's movement can only be understood by a civilization whose foraging techniques developed similarly to earthly ones (i.e., hunting using spears or arrows). And the man's raised hand in greeting seems to make sense only for us.

Today "Pioneer-10", according to the calculations of experts, was already supposed to go into interstellar space. The last, very weak signal from it was received in January 2003, after which the radio transmitter on the ship finally failed. Now this device is moving in the direction of the brightest star in the constellation Taurus - Aldebaran - and can reach it in 2 million years. Pioneer 11 is moving towards the constellation of the Shield. We have not yet been able to detect exoplanets in either constellation.

Music and the Pulsar Map: Voyager's Golden Records

In 1977, another message was sent into space, recorded on a carrier - two gilded records in anodized aluminum cases, mounted on board Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Their diameter is 30 cm, and the precious coating should protect the tracks from the erosive action of cosmic dust. Along with the plastics, each case contains a recording playback needle and a phonographic capsule. There are explanations on the box with the plate: an engraved scheme for installing a needle and converting a video signal into an image, data on the playback speed of a sound recording, another map of pulsars, which shows the position of the Sun in milky way, and a scheme for emitting hydrogen units to obtain metric units and units of time.

The commission for the creation of Voyager records was again headed by Carl Sagan. This time, the experts decided to devote most of the space to music. Classical Western and Eastern works, light and folk music occupy 78% of the space on the discs. The honor to represent the West fell to Bach (Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, Rondo Gavotte, Well-Tempered Clavier), Beethoven (5th Symphony, String Quartet No. 13), Mozart (Magic Flute), Stravinsky (Spring Sacred"), Chuck Berry ("Johnny B. Goode"), Louis Armstrong ("My Melancholy Blues") and Blind Willie Johnson ("Dark Was the Night"). However, most of the space went to the classical music of India, Java and Japan, the folk music of Peru, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Australia and Africa. The record also contains a Chinese piece for qixianqin composed by Bo Ya 2,500 years ago, Georgian choral singing, flute sounds from the Solomon Islands and ritual singing of the peoples of New Guinea, which resembles the singing of people of the Stone Age.

22% of the disk space is occupied by recordings of human voices and the sounds of the planet, as well as 116 images encoded into a video signal. There are greetings in 55 of the most common languages ​​of the Earth, including the ancient ones: Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Aramaic, Ancient Greek and Latin. Voyager has the sounds of the ocean and land, the voices of animals and birds, the noise of human activity: footsteps, the sound of a hammer and an ax, the grinding of a saw, the howl of jet engines and the rumble of a rocket launch, the cry of a child who is soothed by his mother, and the rhythmic clicking of a pulsar, giving clues to the space map on the box.

Still on the plates recorded photos solar spectrum, encoded as three monochrome images. Knowing the spectrum of the Sun, you can combine them into a color picture. This makes it possible to see other images in color: a view of the Earth from space and from low orbit, diagrams of the structure of atoms to get acquainted with the gases of the atmosphere and the DNA molecule, and a series of anatomical drawings showing how a cell divides, fertilization occurs, the development of an embryo and the development of an earthly being. . It also contains eight diagrams illustrating human anatomy. In addition, the carriers from Voyager contain photographs of landscapes, life forms and human beings: farmers from Guatemala and Australia, workers from Africa, Thailand and the United States, ballet dancers, Olympic runners and others.

Also on gold plates are the addresses of UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim and US President Jimmy Carter. Penetrating, but not understandable without knowledge in English Carter's speech, loosely translated, reads as follows:

“This device was created in the USA, a country with a population of 240 million people among the 4 billion people of the Earth. Humanity is still divided into separate nations and states, but countries are rapidly moving towards a single earthly civilization.

We are sending this message into space. It will probably survive for a billion years of our future when our civilization changes and completely changes the face of the Earth. If any civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand the meaning of this disk, here is our message:

It is a gift from a small distant world: our sounds, science, images, music, thoughts and feelings. We are trying to survive in our time so that we can live in yours. We hope that the day will come when the problems we face today will be solved and we will join the galactic civilization. These records represent our hopes, determination and goodwill in this vast and awe inspiring universe."

To date, Voyager 1 has moved away from our planet at a distance of 130 thousand astronomical units (1 AU - the average distance from Earth to the Sun), or 17 light hours and 36 light minutes. It is moving towards the constellation Giraffe and in 40 thousand years will fly by 1.6 light years from the red dwarf AC + 79 3888, which is located not far from the North Star. "Voyager 2" during the same time will have to be at a distance of 1.7 light years from the star Ross 248, and after 296 thousand years will approach Sirius.

On November 16, 1974, using a radio telescope in the crater of the Arecibo volcano, a series of powerful radio signals was sent towards the constellation Hercules. More than one and a half thousand consecutive radio pulses contained encoded information about humanity. A message was sent to the stars, formed by a sequence of 1679 zeros and ones. The addressee was: the constellation Hercules, the star cluster M-13. It was there, according to project manager Francis Drake, that a highly developed extraterrestrial civilization could be located. Information about the decimal system of calculus of earthlings went to the stars, the atomic weights of the most important chemical elements, a schematic representation of earthlings, formulas for the main sugars and nucleotides of human DNA, an image of the solar system and a telescope in Arecibo, a diagram of its operation and the diameter of the antenna parabola. Despite the fact that there was no hope for an answer, it still came.

In 2001, the first alien response was discovered.

In August 2001, in one of the wheat fields in England, near a radio telescope, a huge picture was discovered, also consisting of 73 lines, 23 points each. When the picture was photographed from the plane, there was no doubt: it was a copy of Drake's message, which went to the stars 27 years ago. But when they began to study the message, scientists were surprised to realize that significant changes had been made in it. It wasn't a copy, it was an answer. The alien civilization was not only able to read the message, but also reported its civilization to earthlings in a similar way, which indicates enough high level its development. In the first place, as in the earthly message, was the decimal system, in the second - the atomic weights of chemical elements, indicating the existence of another biological life.

Comparison between us and aliens

By comparing this fragment of the two messages, the researchers found that they differ by one element. As for earthlings, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus turned out to be vital for aliens. But another new element has been added - silicon. At that time, many theories were known, proving that biological life can be not only on a carbon-hydrogen basis, as on Earth, but also on silicon-hydrogen. The structure of the molecules in the message was identical to the human one, only the DNA helix itself changed. The growth of the cosmic being, also encrypted in the binary system, turned out to be much less than ours - only 140 centimeters.

The number of unearthly creatures was also indicated

It turned out that the number of alien civilizations is at least twice as large as ours. And finally, the most interesting is the image of the planetary system, where the intelligent species is located. Number of alien objects star system turned out to be completely identical to our solar system. At the same time, if in the message of the Drake group one planet of the system was singled out - the habitat of the human species, then in the answer three planets were marked in exactly the same way. But that is not all.

A year later, in 2002, the second message came

In a grain field five miles from the first "letter", an information circle appeared that looked like a huge CD-ROM, and next to it was a portrait of the sender. From the field, the head of a strange creature looked at the people, vaguely resembling a lizard with cat's eyes. Almost all experts actively involved in the study of alien civilizations had a hand in deciphering this message.

And finally, in the fall of 2002, the first version appeared: “Beware of those who bring false gifts and break promises. A lot of pain, but not for long… then comes a piece of damaged text that could not be understood, then again the text of the message. It's good there. We resist deception. The channel is closed.

We were answered by two races

One can speculate about alien "letters" for a long time, but one thing is clear: if the first responding civilization is indifferent to humanity, then the second one may well be aggressive. In addition, it is not known how many other civilizations received a message from Earth.