Earth is set to receive its first ‘alien message’ in just a few hours.
The SETI Institute, a non-profit dedicated to understanding life in space, is kicking off a program to beam a signal from Mars to be decoded on Earth.
The idea is to prepare scientists for the ‘profoundly transformational experience for all mankind’ when extraterrestrials contact us – and this is practice for deciphering otherworldly communication.
SETI is hosting a live-streamed event at 3 pm ET (7 pm GMT), where a Mars orbiter will send the encoded transmission that will travel 180 million miles to Earth in just 16 minutes.
Researchers are taking a collaborative approach to solving the message by allowing the public to access it and help decode what it reads. It has provided a submission for anyone up to the challenge.
The Robert C.