It’s hard to imagine that we’re the only biological lifeforms in the universe. Whether we’re the only intelligent life is a more contentious subject, and in 1983 a pair of Japanese astronomers set out to prove the doubters wrong. Admittedly, they’d had a few drinks when they blasted their message toward a bright star named Altair. But, if they’d received a response, it would have been the first confirmation of alien life ever recorded.
Yesterday (August 22), was predicted to be the earliest point in time that we could have received such a response, transmitted over the vast distances of space. As such, a team of Japanese scientists eagerly scanned the skies last night to see what any alien life might have to say. Sadly, it appears that ET did not phone home.
Despite deploying a massive antenna in the mountains, the team led by Shinya Narusawa at the University of Hyogo seemingly turned up nothing. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing out there, or that they won’t reply in the future. Maybe the aliens just didn’t care about the message we sent 40 years ago, containing 13 simple drawings meant to represent the evolution of life on Earth, as well as a Japanese word that roughly translates to “cheers”. Maybe they’re still agonising over their heartfelt love letter to humanity! Maybe it just got lost in the DMs!
Altair is around 16.7 light years away from Earth, and it’s been speculated that it could harbour one of the galaxy’s many potentially life-sustaining planets in its orbit, though researchers now think it’s quite unlikely. The original message was also sent to coincide with a festival held on August 22 festival that celebrates deities represented by Altair and another star, named Vega (hence the two tipsy astronomers, presumably).
Since then, of course, we’ve been blasting signals out into the cosmos left, right, and centre. These include both friendly messages (and a few physical artefacts and artworks) and normal radio and TV broadcasts, which have probably passed thousands of star systems as they “leak” out into space.
Again, we’re yet to hear anything back, though there are plenty of theories and conspiracies about the ongoing silence. Maybe the aliens that receive the messages aren’t advanced enough to beam anything back. Maybe they’re so advanced that our messages read like the whoops and cries of innocent little monkeys, and aren’t worth bothering with. Maybe the aliens don’t want to risk putting themselves in harm’s way by revealing their location, or maybe they’re already walking among us...