Friday, June 13, 2008

Advertisement sent to the stars

The EISCAT scientific radar station on the Norwegian island of Svalbard has used its array of dish antennas (normally used for studying the upper atmosphere) to send a Doritos advertisement toward Ursa Major.
Scientists involved doubt that any alien intelligence will reconstruct the mpeg file and watch the ad, but they will recognize it's a structured message from an intelligent source.

COMMENT: A treaty governing broadcasts meant to be received by alien intelligences has been proposed, and it's a good idea. While "spillover" of Earth broadcasts into space is inevitable, deliberate attempts at communications should be reviewed by a broad spectrum (no pun intended) of scientists to make certain we are sending the message our species would want to send.

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