'If you try to tell somebody where you are, you need to have some common references, right?' 🛸🗺
The universe is inconceivably large and mind-bogglingly old. Given all that time and space, it seems probable that somewhere, sometime, another spark of intelligence flared into existence. But if there are intelligent beings somewhere out there, how on Earth could we connect with them and, assuming we'd like to be friends, how would we give them directions to our planet?
Electromagnetic radiation, which includes everything from visible light to radio waves to infrared, has historically been the number one choice for broadcasting information about Earth into the cosmos. By subtly modulating the frequency of an electromagnetic wave, scientists can tap out complex messages in simple binary code. And because electromagnetic waves are directional, any intelligent aliens intercepting such a signal could simply trace it back to Earth.
One potential problem with radio waves, however, is that they diffract, or broaden, as they travel, much like a ripple expanding in water. That means that they may become too diffuse to carry a discernible message by the time they reach a distant galaxy, according to MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. For a more directed message, said Svetlana Berdyugina, an astrophysicist with the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics in Germany, we should broadcast using visible laser light.
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