The Earth is receiving an “alien” transmission this afternoon

How would humanity respond if, someday, we received a message from an extraterrestrial civilization? Well over the next few weeks, a first-of-its-kind project called A Sign in Space aims to answer that question irl.

Its goal is to simulate what would happen if a theoretical alien species living on Mars sent a transmission to Earth. So like a fire drill, but for aliens.

📡👽 Here’s how it’ll go down: At 3 pm ET today, the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter Mars probe will begin to send a coded message specially designed by SETI Institute artist Daniela de Paulis. It’ll then be received by three big radio telescopes on Earth.

• Once the coded signal is received, teams at each of the three observatories across the globe will process it and make it publicly available.
• Over the following six to eight weeks, scientists around the world – as well as any interested members of the public – will attempt to decode the transmission to figure out exactly what the “aliens” are trying to communicate. Any answers are to be submitted via the project’s website.

👀 Looking ahead… We’ve already submitted “E.T. phone Earth'' as our guess. Though for the real answer, you can tune in as the global project hosts a series of public Zoom meetings in the coming months to discuss the societal implications of spotting a signal from an alien civilization.