Contact?

On November 16, 1974 a digitally-encoded schematic was beamed from the Arecibo radio telescope on Puerto Rico.
It was aimed at the third of a million-star cluster M13, roughly 20,000 light-years from us, near the edge of the Milky Way galaxy.

On 17th August, 2001 two large and incredible images were imprinted on crops beside ANOTHER radio telescope - Chilbolton, near Wherwell in Hampshire, UK.

One image depicts a replica of the schematic contained in that 1974 transmission. The other crop image is that of a humanoid face.

The original message sent is on the right.



Was this an aberration? Or was it actually some sort of 'reply' from somewhere out there?

www.geocities.com...

That is amazing, far too similiar to be a coincidince. I can find three deviations in the "reply", though. The left squiggly line (near the center on the original) was changed to a zig-zag pattern on the second. The humanoid was replaced by a figure with a larger, rounder head, and the bottom section seems scrambled. I can make out the arch (which would be above the M) and the section below the M, but nothing else in that area lines up.
My first instinct is to ask who else knew about the transmission? I want to believe this one (wow, I really do) but I can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone did not just root through some archives and decide to pull a prank. Even after reading what the article has to say about crop circles, I'd hope that anyone who was able to intercept this message would do us the dignity of landing at Aracibo with a hand-written response

Well, a couple of questions that lead me to believe this is a hoax...

How did they get the message so quickly? M13 is 20,000 light years away. That means the message will take 20,000 years to get there!

Why would the recipients make a crop pattern? Why not send a radio signal back? Why not just come here, land in public, and say hi? Why the subterfuge?

Why would the pattern be drawn in the UK (which, mind you, is known for hoaxes when it comes to crop circles) and NOT near the Arecibo dish, which is over 4000 miles away?

Originally posted by TheGoodDoctorFunk
That is amazing, far too similiar to be a coincidince. I can find three deviations in the "reply", though. The left squiggly line (near the center on the original) was changed to a zig-zag pattern on the second. The humanoid was replaced by a figure with a larger, rounder head, and the bottom section seems scrambled. I can make out the arch (which would be above the M) and the section below the M, but nothing else in that area lines up.

The patterns mean certain things... The rough outline of our bodies, our DNA, the periodic table of elements and what elements are most common, the location of the Earth in the Solar System, where the Sun is, and a lot more...

Here's some more detailed information on it: Wikipedia: Arecibo Message

My first instinct is to ask who else knew about the transmission? I want to believe this one (wow, I really do) but I can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone did not just root through some archives and decide to pull a prank. Even after reading what the article has to say about crop circles, I'd hope that anyone who was able to intercept this message would do us the dignity of landing at Aracibo with a hand-written response

A lot of people knew about it. It was world wide news. In fact, shortly after it was sent, the UN passed an international law saying it was illegal to send messages like that again. So it would be really easy to find out about and then fake your own.

[edit on 3/21/2006 by cmdrkeenkid]

The contents of the Arecibo message were/are widely known... it was the brain-child of Frank Drake & Carl Sagan. Go to wikipedia for a quick explanation.

This could have easily been (and more likely was) made by pranksters who were familiar with the Arecibo message. But for fun, maybe you should try to decode the new message based on the original meaning and see if the changes represent anything tangible.

it takes literally thousands of light years for those radio waves to get any significant distance from Earth. For a moment, our 20-trillion-watt-equivalent blast of radio waves made us the brightest radio source in this galaxy.

Source

So, it seems that if something with the ability to detect the signal were merely in the vicinity of, at most, 27 light years and somewhere near the beam the was shot towards the cosmos, they would have been able to pick up on it. Sort of like how third parties can pick up on cell phone calls, maybe. I guess it really depends on how wide the arc of the 'shot' was. I mean, 2 degrees over 27 light years forms a pretty wide swatch in which to receive the signal. The source I posted also has a pretty interesting interpretation of the 'response', but lost my faith when the author speculated on the message being sent telepathically.

Here is another site which launches into a objective anaylsis of all parts of the message, Arecibo, and Chilbolton.
claudescommentary.com...

If some extraterrestrial source did write that, which I highly doubt, it would be 27 years at the most if they can travel at least 27 times faster than the speed of light. If the they could only travel as fast as the speed of light, it would have been 13.5 light years out.

Doc Funk, is that sig from Waking Life? It sounds really familiar.

But staying on topic...Hoax. If "they" have the tech to fly all the way here to knock crops down in pretty little patterns then they have the tech to land at the half time show of the superbowl, tell NSync, Aerosmith, The Stones, and Britney Spears to stop destroying music, and announce their presence to the world.

Or they could at least take a multimillion dollar commercial slot.

Originally posted by DaFunk13
Doc Funk, is that sig from Waking Life? It sounds really familiar.

Yeah, I think it's from something the man on the train was saying.

Or they could at least take a multimillion dollar commercial slot.

Yeah, really!

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
Well, a couple of questions that lead me to believe this is a hoax...

How did they get the message so quickly? M13 is 20,000 light years away. That means the message will take 20,000 years to get there!

[edit on 3/21/2006 by cmdrkeenkid]

I have no solid answer to this, but even with Earth technologies, physicists have found a way to take pictures of the universe when it was approximately 380,000 years old. Given that we have had technology for such little time, it may be possible that there are other intelligent beings who have different methods of surveillance before light has to reach them.

Originally posted by Jiffy
I have no solid answer to this, but even with Earth technologies, physicists have found a way to take pictures of the universe when it was approximately 380,000 years old. Given that we have had technology for such little time, it may be possible that there are other intelligent beings who have different methods of surveillance before light has to reach them.

That's because the light/radiation has traveled through space for 380,000 years. Also, we have images of what the beginnings of the universe looked like, 14 billion years ago.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid

Originally posted by Jiffy
I have no solid answer to this, but even with Earth technologies, physicists have found a way to take pictures of the universe when it was approximately 380,000 years old. Given that we have had technology for such little time, it may be possible that there are other intelligent beings who have different methods of surveillance before light has to reach them.

That's because the light/radiation has traveled through space for 380,000 years. Also, we have images of what the beginnings of the universe looked like, 14 billion years ago.

Was that where they found that the universe went from the size of a marble to larger than our visible universe in less than a 1,000,000,000,000,000,000th of a second? Considering what we have accomplished in science in our time here, it would seem quite possible and probable that such advanced species would exist and not have to wait for the light to reach them. IF there is intelligent life, we do not know if they are 1000, 10,000 or even 1,000,000 years technologically advanced beyond us. It would be like telling an inferior species that their planet is flat.

As far as the crop circles, were they investigated for radiation, bending, or any debunkery?

mikesingh:

You may want to review the video listed in this thread: Jaime Maussan-2005 UFO Conference

He specifically discusses these two crop circles.

er who said the aliens had to be that distance away any way? whats to say that they are not alot nearer and have the tech to get here at a rapid pace?

All this debate about distance / time is all good, but we're missing the point. They are so highly advanced that space travels a daily occourence, so whats stopping them from being closer / faster than we could ever imagine?

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
If some extraterrestrial source did write that, which I highly doubt, it would be 27 years at the most if they can travel at least 27 times faster than the speed of light. If the they could only travel as fast as the speed of light, it would have been 13.5 light years out.

This all assumes we ignore theories in quantum physics regarding the "warping" of space-time. The comments regarding signals traveling through space are under the assumption of a "linear" line of travel. Time and space isn't like this. Here's just a quick quote from the science & nature section of the bbc:

--------------------
"What does a black hole do to spacetime? Relativity predicts that at the centre of a black hole is an infinitely dense point, called a singularity, within which all the normal laws of physics no longer apply. Time, space, matter and energy no longer have any well-defined meaning. Einstein's equations show that such a singularity doesn't just make a dip in the imaginary rubber sheet of spacetime, it makes a tunnel that goes right through and momentarily opens out on the other side.

Where is 'the other side'? It could be somewhere else in spacetime, either in the future or in the past, or it could even be in another Universe"
--------------------

There is much about space-time that isn't yet fully understood, so it's much too simple of a statement to try to predict how "long" it would take for a signal to reach one point in space-time to a second point.

Just a thought,
-Ry




[edit on 21-3-2006 by rdube02]

rdube02:

I read somewhere that Einstein's idea about time/space travel meant that it wasn't so much a tunnel as a folding of space on itself. Sort of like folding a piece of paper.

The top of the page would be A and the bottom, B. They're far apart when the paper is flat, but when it's folded, A and B come together.

Originally posted by Landis
rdube02:

I read somewhere that Einstein's idea about time/space travel meant that it wasn't so much a tunnel as a folding of space on itself. Sort of like folding a piece of paper.

The top of the page would be A and the bottom, B. They're far apart when the paper is flat, but when it's folded, A and B come together.

Yes - I'd say that statement is accurate. At least its one of the current theories about how exactly spacetime is warped by a very large mass, such as a black hole (a star that has collapsed in on itself).

Fascinating stuff, great reading - and a great way to alter one's perception of what we consider to be our "reality".

-Ry