Alien Contact: Outer Space

People think that space is a quiet

and desolate vacuum of emptiness.

Between the stars and planets,

there exists a vast realm of nothingness.

However, space is very active.

Traveling throughout the cosmos are a variety of signals

broadcasting their presence to anyone who will listen.

Many of these signals are stars, quasars,

and other celestial phenomenon.

Yet some of these signals, perhaps many of them,

are extraterrestrial beings talking to each other,

and perhaps, talking to us.

Stars and planets each have a unique radio signature.

For example, Jupiter's magnetic field hisses in size.

Neptune sounds like a vast, desolate ocean.

The rings of Uranus chime.

And Saturn has an eerie bold sound of wind and tone.

And, of course, the Earth emits a multitude of signals

from all the radio transmitters around the globe,

sending signals into deep space

to anyone who can tune them in.

The question is, is there anyone out there listening?

And if so, are they trying to contact us?

Perhaps, they already have.

On August 15th, 1977,

a strong narrow band radio signal was received

by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope.

The signal appeared to come from the constellation Sagittarius

and bore the expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin.

Astronomer Jerry R. Ehman discovered the anomaly

a few days later while reviewing the recorded data.

He was so impressed by the result,

that he circled the reading on the computer's printout

and wrote the comment, "Wow!" on its side,

which is how the event has since been referred to.

The entire signal's sequence lasted 72 seconds,

the window the Big Ear was able to observe it,

but has not been detected since,

despite several subsequent attempts by Ehman and others.

Various hypotheses on the source of the emission

has been put forward.

Although the possibility of a natural origin

has not been completely discounted,

to date, the "Wow!" signal is considered the best candidate

for an alien radio transmission ever received.

In 2012, on the 35th anniversary of the "Wow!" signal's reception,

scientists at the Arecibo Observatory beamed a response from humanity

containing 10,000 Twitter messages

in the direction from which the signal originated.

They attempted to increase the chances of any intelligent life

receiving and decoding the celebrity videos

and crowd-sourced tweets

by attaching a repeating sequence header to each message,

so the recipient will know that the messages are intentional

and from another intelligent life form.

That signal is now traveling in the direction

of the constellation Sagittarius at the speed of light.

One can only hope it is received by benevolent extraterrestrials.

The "Wow!" signal and our response is not the first time

scientists have intentionally sent a signal into space

with the hope someone may receive it.

In 1974, Carl Sagan sent a broadcast known as the Arecibo message

into space via radio waves.

The message, aimed at ET, was the most powerful

radio broadcast ever beamed into space by mankind.

In comparison, the signal sent out into space

was a million times stronger than that of a typical television transmission.

Directed to a star cluster located over 25,000 light-years away,

the pictorial message was sent in hopes that, one day,

we would receive a similar response.

The radio signal included our planet's location

within our star system,

core principles of math and science,

and the antenna that was used to transmit the signal,

all characteristics that an intelligent alien civilization should understand.

The message, prepared by Carl Sagan and his colleagues,

also included information about our species,

even our physical appearance, as well as our DNA code.

Twenty-seven years later in 2001, a crop circle appeared

shaking the scientific community.

A pattern appeared on a crop field next to the U.K.'s largest telescope

and observatory, the Chilbolton,

where the world's largest fully-steerable meteorological radar is located.

This circle in wheat looked like a response

to the 1974 broadcast.

It was considered by many as one of the most impressive

and important crop circles ever to appear on our planet

since the crop circle, unlike others,

carries a message, or better said, a response from space.

Describing a different solar system in the universe,

the image of the sender, non-human DNA,

and some microwave antenna, the Chilbolton crop circle

was the ultimate response we had ever hoped for.

According to mathematicians, the decimal equivalents of the binary code

were unchanged from the Arecibo original,

but the atomic numbers of the elements

composed the basics of life had been altered.

Silicon, an element with an atomic number of 14,

was added precisely in the correct sequence

between oxygen and phosphorous.

All of the information in the crop image is consistent

with a response from an extraterrestrial source.

Whether or not the crop circle that appeared next to the Chilbolton

was in fact an alien response is still up for debate.

However, many people are firmly convinced

that not only is the crop circle of 2001 a real message

from another intelligent alien civilization in the universe,

but we receive similar messages nearly every day.

Indeed, messages from space have been around

since the inception of radio itself.

Nikola Tesla, the inventor of radio,

was convinced he received messages from aliens

at the turn of the 20th century.

Tesla was the first to attempt to communicate

with neighboring worlds using radio waves.

In 1899, he was at his laboratory in Colorado Springs

driving monstrous surges of power into the Earth

and also, beaming energy outward from the 280-foot tower he had built.

He had instruments to record electromagnetic disturbances

from all around.

During the tests, Tesla began picking up odd data on his instruments.

He was sure that this was a signal of some sort.

Keep in mind that no one at that time could have been transmitting,

other than Marconi who was just beginning tests in Italy.

The signals came periodically and with such a clear suggestion

of number and order that they were not traceable

to any cause then known to man.

Tesla was familiar with electrical disturbances produced by the Sun,

the Aurora Borealis and Earth currents,

and was sure that these variations were due to none of those causes.

A purpose was behind these signals.

They are the results of an attempt by some human beings,

not of this world, to speak to us by signals.

I am absolutely certain that they are not caused

by anything terrestrial.

The feeling is constantly growing on me

that I had been the first to hear the greeting

of one planet to another.

The Martians, or the inhabitants of whatever planet had signaled to us,

would understand that once we had caught their message

across the gulf of space,

and had sent back a response,

to convey a knowledge of form by such means is,

while difficult, not impossible,

and I have already found a way of doing it.

Did Tesla's experiments transmit radio signals

to some of our nearer planets?

Had Tesla unintentionally detected signals from another civilization

or did he simply make an error?

Probably, we'll never know.

Because of his financial problems,

the large part of his research notes and other papers

were auctioned off after his death.

Also lost are much of his other research papers.

How much of Tesla's work remains hidden and confiscated?

It's unknown,

and thus, much of his scientific work of great value

has been lost forever.

In a rare case published in 2016,

scientists have discovered, not radio signals,

but rather, light beams emanating from space

that could be extraterrestrials trying to communicate.

The claim of two scientists that they may have found evidence

of intelligent aliens is raising some astronomers' eyebrows.

Appearing in the journal

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific,

the pair's study reports that 234 stars

out of over two million surveyed,

have signals in the form of light pulses

they say are best explained by intelligent ETs from far away.

After discussing a couple of explanations

for what could be causing the signals,

the study states, "Finally, we considered the possibility,

predicted in our previous published paper,

that the signals are caused by light pulses

generated by extraterrestrial intelligence

to make us aware of their existence."

What's more, these signals have exactly the shape

that scientists would expect to see from intelligent aliens,

according to the study.

But the Berkeley SETI Research Center says

more research is necessary, and it is too early

to unequivocally attribute these purported signals

to the activities of extraterrestrial civilizations.

The organization said that they will observe

some of the stars in question using a nearly eight-foot optical telescope

called the Automatic Planet Finder,

and that they look forward to consulting with the scientists

behind the controversial claim.

The controversy comes onto the heels of new data

about a strange star that's been dimming in recent years

leading some to speculate about an alien megastructure.

Tabby's Star, an F-class star located in the constellation Cygnus

with an official long numerical name,

has befuddled many scientists due to its light emissions.

Unusual light fluctuations of the star were discovered by citizen scientists

as part of the Planet Hunters Project in September of 2015.

Several hypotheses have been proposed

to explain the star's large irregular changes in brightness

as measured by its unusual light curve,