Article by Sean Martin June 11, 2020 (express.co.uk)
• You could be the first person to make contact with aliens by sending an encoded personal message into deep space through the firm known as ‘SpaceSpeak’. According to its website, spacespeak.com: “SpaceSpeak will take your message, encode it, and beam it out into space where it will travel the heavens for millions of years.” Sending a message, text, photo or video costs as little as $2, and the site even allows you to track how far your message has gone.
• The message is beamed through photons – light particles, they travel at the speed of light – which means it will travel the cosmos for millions of years. Hopefully, the message could be picked up by an extraterrestrial civilization elsewhere in the Universe. “Long after the Earth is gone, photons from your message will be racing across the cosmos in silent testament to your thoughts.” “Whether it’s a poem, a prayer, a message in support of a cause, or a note to any intelligent life forms that may be listening, your text, image, or audio clip will be broadcast into space with our radio transmitter,” says the website. “Check back later to see how far it has traveled!”
• Some experts have warned against trying to contact aliens. Stephen Hawking, who died in March 2018, suggested it might be risky contacting aliens. While receiving and translating signals from deep space is relatively safe, “we need to be wary of answering back until we have developed a bit further,” said Hawking. “Meeting a more advanced civilization, at our present stage (of technological development), might be a bit like the original inhabitants of America meeting Columbus. I don’t think they thought they were better off for it.”
• Professor of mathematical statistics at Chalmers University, Olle Häggström, said that an advanced extraterrestrial civilization could see humanity as a threat and destroy us. “Maybe we would be better off observing exoplanets for ten or 20 years until we’re in a better position to assess the risk of communication. The risk is too great.”
A firm known as SpaceSpeak will encode a personal message from a user, before sending it out into deep space. The message will be beamed through photons, which means it will travel the cosmos for millions of years. Hopefully, the message could be picked up by an extraterrestrial civilisation elsewhere in the Universe, meaning YOU could be the first person to make contact with aliens.
Sending a message, which could be text or photo or video, costs as little as $2 (£1.60), and the site even allows you to track how far your message has gone.
Since the message is sent via photons, which are light particles, they travel at the speed of light, so a message will be 186,282 miles from Earth in just one second.
SpaceSpeak said on its website: “SpaceSpeak will take your message, encode it, and beam it out into space where it will travel the heavens for millions of years.
“Long after the Earth is gone, photons from your message will be racing across the cosmos in silent testament to your thoughts.
“Whether it’s a poem, a prayer, a message in support of a cause, or a note to any intelligent life forms that may be listening, your text, image, or audio clip will be broadcast into space with our radio transmitter. Check back later to see how far it has traveled!”
However, some experts have previously warned against trying to contact aliens.
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