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On November 16, 1974 a digitally encoded schematic (below) was beamed from the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico after decision from SETI to celebrate the telescope upgrade. 20 terawatt transmission at 2380MHz, was aimed at the globular star cluster M13, some 25,000 light-years away, in the constellation of Hercules, near the edge of our galaxy. The message consisted of 1679 pulses in binary code, which, as a product of two prime numbers 23 and 72, makes the massage easy to display as a matrix 23 cells wide and 72 cells high in which each cell is either full or empty, thus forming a singular image.
On November 16, 1974 a digitally encoded schematic (below) was beamed from the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico after decision from SETI to celebrate the telescope upgrade. 20 terawatt transmission at 2380MHz, was aimed at the globular star cluster M13, some 25,000 light-years away, in the constellation of Hercules, near the edge of our galaxy. The message consisted of 1679 pulses in binary code, which, as a product of two prime numbers 23 and 72, makes the massage easy to display as a matrix 23 cells wide and 72 cells high in which each cell is either full or empty, thus forming a singular image.
Arecibo
message included basic data which describe our environment, such as numbers from
1 to 10 (decimal number system - left end of the image), atomic numbers for
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus (elements that compose living
matter - second column), formulas for sugar and nucleotides of DNA (third,
fourth, fifth and sixth columns), number of nucleotides in DNA (bar between two
spirals) and it’s double helix (spirals), figure and the height of human
(above the human figure), number of inhabitants of the Earth at the time message
was sent (4.6 billion - below the human figure), simplified solar system
representation with offset Earth indicating where we are (third column from the
right), Arecibo telescope dish representation and it’s diameter (at the right
end).
As
the speed of radio waves in vacuum is limited to the speed of light and as used
radio beam was very narrow, nobody was expecting
any kind or reply for at least next 40.000 years.
On
August 17, 2001, two large and unique images were found imprinted on crops
beside another radio telescope - Chilbolton, near Wherwell in Hampshire, United
Kingdom. One image depicted a
replica of the schematic contained in Arecibo 1974 transmission. It's
image shown above was made by renown crop circle photographer, Lucy Pringle, to
whose site is linked. The other crop
image was that of a humanoid face. The
reply schematic, or Arecibo reply glyph, was subtly different from the original
that was transmitted in 1974.
According
to the first assessment by the crop circle researcher
Paul
Vigay, reply
message differs from original in the following points: silicon atomic number is
inserted among other elements which compose live matter, there is one additional
DNA strand, number of nucleotides is changed, image of human is replaced by that
of 1 meter tall being with a small body and big head, on the solar system
representation third, fourth, fifth and sixth planets are highlighted,
population value is set to 8.5 billion, the Arecibo telescope dish was
substituted by a representation of August
14, 2000 crop circle which
was found on the same spot and it’s diameter was, of course, changed.
At
this time Mr. Vigay is undecided and prefers not to comment, but to share his findings.