What often serves as the eerie, yet profound basis for many undertakings in astronomy, is the unceasing search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. Indeed, this entrenched desire to accost and understand the unknown serves as the fundamental purpose with which the discipline was founded. In the ambitious effort to discern what and who else is out there, scientists, researchers, authors, and even filmmakers have all tried their hand to describe the reality of finding and communicating with alien life. I’m excited, and a tad scared, to share that we’ve tried to do so once again; astronomers from a popular research community have sent a radio message to a neighboring and potentially habitable star system. The red dwarf, GJ 273, and its accompanying planets are close enough that a reply can be heard in as little as twenty-five years. The real question, however, is whether or not we’ve screwed ourselves, or unlocked a new frontier of scientific exploration.
First things first, this notion of sending bits of humanity into the cosmos so that someone (or something) will find them, is far from new. Not only do you see the concept beautifully portrayed in cinema or art, but also as a fundamental component of historic space missions. The Voyager 1 probe, currently the farthest human made object from Earth, contained a gold record of sounds and images from the blue planet. The goal was to survive time and provide a token of Earth’s science, music, and thoughts to whomever might find it.
In the same vein, the 2017 message was in radio form – scientists in Norway used an antenna to beam an eighty-hour description of counting, geometry, trigonometry, and timekeeping. The information was sent to a red dwarf in the constellation of Canis Minor, a star cluster just 12 light years away. The most painful part of this entire exercise? Waiting twenty-five years to hear back, and pondering all of the bad that could happen in the meantime.
Here’s where things get a bit hazy. The objective of communicating with extra-terrestrials has seen tremendous support across the globe. Research groups like METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) are thriving, when they send messages like this, it’s hard not to acknowledge the work they are doing. However, the implications of intentionally trying to find alien life are very contentious. These messages must do their best to comprise all of humanity, and in a world ridden with political and social divisions, you can imagine there is much debate as to what should get included. Moreover, renown physicists like Stephen Hawking have publicly denounced such behavior; should an alien civilization receive our memo and act upon it, they will almost certainly be far more advanced. In fact, even researchers part of METI express their concerns. As Dan Werthimer, SETI scientist at UC Berkeley (go Bears!!), posits, “it’s like shouting in a forest before you know if there are tigers, lions, and bears or other dangerous animals there.”
Clearly, the cause is noble, but the ramifications associated with it prove pernicious. An almost inescapable similarity between humans is our frequent need to look up at the stars and question our purpose; we yearn for an understanding of our place in the universe, and wonder at the tremendous amount of space wasted if it turns out we are alone. It’s this uncertainty we try to either substantiate or subvert, and we risk a tremendous amount to do so. Whether or not you agree with our methods of exploring such ambiguities, I think it’s important to understand why we have them, as well as their dangers. I just hope we haven’t given away our position to some intergalactic warlord.