arecibo_message

On November 16, +1974, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) group of scientists, led by Frank Drake of Cornell University and Carl Sagan, used the Arecibo radio telescope to broadcast 1679 binary digits, at 2389 MHz radiowaves, modulated with 10 Hz pauses at 10 bits / second for 3 minutes, toward globular cluster M13, about 25,000 light years from earth. The "arecibo message" consisted of 1679 binary bits arranged in 73 rows and 23 columns, depicting in pixels, from top to bottom, the numbers 1 through 10, the atomic numbers of the elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphrous (the molecular components of DNA), the formulae for sugar and base DNA nucleotides, the number of nucleotides in a DNA genome and a depiction of its double-helix pattern, a proportioned human figure above the third planet from the sun in the depiction of our solar system below, and at the bottom a depiction of the radio dish with a description of its porportions.