Rather than wait for aliens to find us, a bold scientific project recently sent a message into space with the hopes that it will be heard by intelligent ETs.
Researchers with the Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence organization announced that they beamed the binary-coded missive via radio waves last month.
The target for the message is a star known as 'GJ 273,' which is believed to be orbited by a planet which could harbor life and is only 12 light-years from Earth.
Contained within communique, astronomers at METI explained, are a rudimentary explanation of various mathematical concepts, insights into how humans measure time, and 33 songs.
Although the message, due to reach GJ 273 around 2029, sparks the imagination, not everyone thinks that declaring our presence to ETs is necessarily a good idea.
A number of prominent astronomers have criticized the effort because it could wind up alerting hostile aliens to our presence here on Earth, while others argued that the METI group does not have the right to 'speak' for the planet.
Despite their objections, the METI project moved ahead with the plan and now, regardless of how one felt about the message being sent in the first place, the proverbial genie is out of the bottle.
For their part, the scientists who broadcast the 'call to ETs' insist that the effort was largely a test run for future types of communication attempts using stronger signals.
To that end, METI president Douglas Vakoch mused to Space.com that "the big success of the project will come if, 25 years from now, there's someone who remembers" that there may be an incoming alien message.
For the sake of the scientists who just sent the message, we also hope that if the response from ETs is to invade the Earth in 2041, everyone will have long since forgotten that they are the ones who caused the whole mess.
Source: Space.com