In May 2023, ESA's Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), currently in orbit around Mars, sent a signal to Earth to simulate a possible extraterrestrial transmission. As part of the multidisciplinary art project “A Sign in Space,” the goal was to enlist citizen scientists to help decode it. The campaign was inspired by Italian writer/journalist Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics, a series of short stories that explore various scientific principles. The project is a partnership with the SETI Institute, the Green Bank Observatory, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF).
After three radio astronomy observatories on Earth intercepted the message, the challenge was to extract the message from the raw radio signal data and then decode it. After ten days, more than 5,000 citizen scientists worldwide gathered online and used their combined resources to extract the signal. After a year of attempts, two US citizens – father-daughter team Ken and Keli Chaffin – managed to crack the code after days of simulations. They discovered that the message consisted of five clusters of white dots and grids on a black background, indicating cell formation and life!
The project was founded by Daniela de Paulis, a media artist and licensed radio host who is currently an Artist in Residence at the SETI Institute and Green Bank Observatory. Daniela and a small group of astronomers and computer scientists created the message with support from ESA, the SETI Institute and the Green Bank Observatory. On June 7, 2024, she received the decoded image, which showed five amino acids – the basic building blocks of life – in a retro format.
Ken Chaffin added the following message to the solution he and his daughter submitted:
“My decoded message is a simple image with 5 amino acids displayed in a universal (hopefully) organic molecular diagram notation, and a few individual pixel dots appearing between the clusters and molecular diagrams. I used a Margolus 2×2 reversible block cellular automaton (BCA) with the simplest reversible rule called “single point rotation (CCW)” which only acts on 2×2 cells that only have a single point or pixel per Header contains instructions, keep pixel or point count, 625 pixels in and 625 out. The star map image appears to have encoded the molecular shapes in a 3D set of basis vectors with local degrees of freedom (also shown in the header).
“The CA effectively converts this 3D information and projects it onto a 2D plane. I can run my Unity game engine based simulator forward in time (CCW rotation) and backward in time (CW rotation) and convert the star map representation into the amino acid diagrams in 6625 generations and reverse the rotation process to convert the amino acid diagrams back into the star map convert image into 6625 generations. I say starmap, but I'm really reading from the binary message file on every run. The decoded image is only visible for 1 frame, which lasts about 1/10th of a second, but I can stop my CA engine and manually advance and reverse… Here is a screenshot of my decoded image [see below].
“The 'blocks' have 1, 6, 7 or 8 'pixels' representing the atomic numbers of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Single and double bonds are called single and double lines. The C-H bond angle is indicated with a caret ^. These signs were created by the CA. I have not edited the image in any way. It's absolutely clear to me what this is, and it's also completely clear to my chemist friend who I told this to. “It is amazing to see how all the CA gliders or spacecraft carry the binary parts of the message throughout the 'galaxy' and then suddenly come together in coherence and meaning…”
The picture shows the Chaffis solution. Image credit: A Sign in Space
Now that the tasks of extracting and decrypting the message are complete, Daniela and her colleagues take a step back to observe how citizen scientists shape the challenge. The next step is to interpret the message and determine what it is intended to convey – a task that currently remains open. According to the project team, there are several ways for the public to get involved, including using the description and solution provided by the Chaffins to conduct independent analysis and posting the results on the project's Discord channel.
Participants must include a description of the method they used so that their approach can be reproduced and verified. The possibilities are endless, ranging from an attempt at communication to cultural exchange to the threat of invasion. Ultimately, this exercise aims to determine whether humanity is ready to make first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization.
Further reading: ESA
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