Ln May 24, 2023, the Trace Gas Orbiter probe from the European Space Agency program transmitted to Earth the first intelligent message from space. Intercepted by three astronomical observatories (the Medicina radio astronomical station of the National Institute of Astrophysics near Bologna in Italy, the Green Bank Observatory located in West Virginia, and the Allen Telescope Array based in California), this one was for the less cryptic. Only one human being knew its content: the interdisciplinary artist of Italian nationality Daniela De Paulis, at the origin of the scientific-artistic project A Sign in Space, in residence at the Seti Institute (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and at the Green Bank Observatory.
Supported by the institute’s scientists such as its director, the French exobiologist Nathalie Cabrol, or the planetologist Franck Marchis, his idea was to carry out a planetary simulation, as realistic as possible, of the first reception of an extraterrestrial communication. This is how the message received was presented during an online event and shared across all social networks so that anyone could take up this astonishing challenge. How long would it take us to decipher it? How would we decipher it and above all, in how long?
The grid of the cellular automaton
The response came on Wednesday June 12, 2024. It took more than a year, and long months of information exchange. […] Read more
