The competition to decode a message
from Mars that reached Earth on the evening of May 24 has
started: the data, collected by radio telescopes at 21:16
Italian time, have already been processed and made available
online at the website of the project 'A Sign in Space'.
In the space of a few hours, more than 1,300 people from all
over the world, Italy included, took up this challenge, an
experiment on the margins between science, art and science
fiction, according to the National Astrophysics Institute
(INAF), which set it up from an idea from the artist Daniela de
Paulis, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, the
SETI Institute, and the Green Bank Observatory.
The signal, which simulates a message sent by an
extra-terrestrial civilization, was transmitted via radio waves
by the Trace Gas Orbiter probe of the ExoMars mission, in orbit
around Mars. "It reached Earth around 21:16 Italian time and it
lasted half an hour, as had been predicted," said the INAF
experts.
It was picked up by the Italian radio telescope at Medicina near
Bologna, run by INAF, and two American radio telescopes, the
Allen Telescope Array of the SETI Institute, in California, and
the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, as well as by various
independent ham radio groups.
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