messages from Earth

At 20.3 light years away in the constellation of Libra and orbiting the low-mass dwarf star Gliese 581 is the planet Gliese 581d, which may or may not be inhabited by intelligent life. Australians have been invited to send a message. From COSMOS magazine's website www.hellofromearth.net

At COSMOS magazine, we thought it would be a cool way to celebrate National Science Week in Australia - and the International Year of Astronomy - by sending a message to a potentially habitable planet outside the Solar System.

Thanks to the support of Australia's Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, the CSIRO and NASA, and a bunch of other really helpful people, the text messages collected on this site will be transmitted to the closest Earth-like planet that might harbour life: Gliese 581d.

At the end of Science Week, NASA will transmit the messages to Gliese 581d using the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Tidbinbilla.

Messages are limited to 160 characters and only in the English language. Totally useless of course to an alien civilisation.

At any rate, random gibberish in an Earth language would still reach Glieese 581d well before the Voyager space craft, which is now outside of our solar system, is intercepted by intelligent extra-terrestrial life forms.