‘Anybody there?’ Aliens may respond to message sent 40 years ago, Japanese astronomers hopeful

livemint.com:

Asahi Shimbun. Their optimism stems from the proximity of the star system Altair, which is 16.7 light years away from Earth, making this a plausible timeframe for a response. The stargazers have chosen August 22, coinciding with the lunar calendar's celebration of the July 7 Tanabata star festival, where celestial "lovers" Altair and Vega take centre stage, to be on standby for a potential extra-terrestrial message.

This year, Tanabata falls on August 22 according to the lunar calendar. In 1983, when the "Hello, is anybody there?" message was sent to the cosmos, it fell on August 15. A team led by Shinya Narusawa at the University of Hyogo will deploy a 64-meter diameter antenna in Saku, Nagano Prefecture, with hopes of detecting radio signals in response to the message transmitted sent in 1983.

Also read: Chandrayaan-3 set for historic lunar landing on August 23. Know when and where to watch live telecast This message, consisting of 13 drawings illustrating the history of life on Earth and the appearance of humans, among other information, was crafted by astronomers Masaki Morimoto and Hisashi Hirabayashi. Radio signals representing these drawings were transmitted from the United States on August 15, 1983, as part of a space-themed project commemorating the 15th anniversary of the weekly comic anthology Shonen Jump, according to Narusawa.

Narusawa, 58, believes that intelligent life beyond Earth must exist somewhere in the universe. Narusawa said, “A large number of exoplanets have been detected since the 1990s." He is also a SETI researcher. “Altair may have a planet whose environment can sustain life," he added.