It was 40 years ago when Japanese astronomers Masaki Morimoto and Hisashi Hirabayashi sent a radio signal toward a distant star named Altair, located 16.7 light years away.
Using a telescope from Stanford University, the duo supposedly transmitted a message 'while drunk,' intending to depict to any potential aliens orbiting the star what Earthlings look like.
Currently, a group of astronomers from the University of Hyogo are hopeful about obtaining the long-awaited response they have anticipated. Their aim is to demonstrate the existence of alien life.
They are positioning a vast radio telescope in the city of Saku to capture any potential response from planets encircling Altair, one of the brightest stars in the night sky.
August 22 is considered the most likely day for a reply, but it's unclear how the team plans to receive an actual response.
According to the Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun, on August 15, 1983, Morimoto and Hirabayashi transmitted the initial radio signal from Stanford, which represented 13 drawings.
These 13 drawings were decoded into signals and sent in a manner similar to transmitting information in an email. They illustrated the progression of life on Earth, encompassing organisms from fish to a lizard, an ape, and a family of humans.
Among the crude sketches, there was a depiction of a fish climbing from the water onto land – symbolizing an early phase of human evolution – There was also an image of a human waving, and intriguingly and somewhat bizarrely, the word 'toast.'
After four decades, a team led by Shinya Narusawa at the University of Hyogo is employing an antenna measuring over 200 feet (64 meters) in diameter, known as the Usuda Deep Space Center in Saku, with the aim of capturing a potential response. The anticipated date for a reply is August 22, chosen because it aligns with the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in the traditional Japanese lunisolar calendar.
Narusawa has highlighted the continuous discovery of exoplanets, suggesting that billions more might exist. "A large number of exoplanets have been detected since the 1990s," Narusawa informed The Asahi Shimbun.
'Altair may have a planet whose environment can sustain life.' He added.
Altair is located 16.7 light-years away within the constellation of Aquila. It is one of the brightest stars in the night sky.
Although there are no currently confirmed planets in orbit around Altair. However, the presence or absence of planets orbiting Altair is not definitively established. The researchers are hoping for a reply to their message that could indicate the existence of some form of an extraterrestrial world.
