Message from Mars
Father and daughterdecipher message coming from Mars.
Ken and Keli Chaffin, afather/daughter team from the US, have deciphered a simulated “extraterrestrial”message that was transmitted in May 2023 via a radio signal sent by theEuropean Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. The message was interceptedby three observatories on Earth. It was part of a project which aimed to engagecitizen scientists in decoding an alien message.
The Chaffins realizedthat the message contained a diagram that represented the structures of fiveamino acids, the fundamental building blocks of life. According to specialists,the Chaffins conducted hours-long simulations every day and ultimately organizedthe bits into coherent structures using computer simulations and reversiblecellular automata.
The simulated signalwas received on Earth 16 minutes after it was sent. A worldwide community ofover 5,000 citizen scientists went to work on the raw data and managed toextract the signal within ten days. This extraction of the encrypted messagefrom the raw radio signal showcases the potential of global collaboration
The project, called “ASign in Space”, was initiated by artist Daniela de Paulis in collaboration withthe European Space Agency, the SETI Institute, the Green Bank Observatory inWest Virginia, and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics. It wasconceived to test which methods might be useful for decoding transmissions fromextraterrestrial civilizations.
According to theEuropean Space Agency, the results of the project showed that if humanity everreceives a signal from real extraterrestrials, citizen scientists could play acrucial role in deciphering it. The involvement of so many amateur scientistsand the success of the Chaffins demonstrate the power of collaborative effortsand diverse approaches.
