Father-daughter team from US decodes 'alien signal' after trying for a year

Extracting signals from raw data took 10 days to an online community, and decoding it took over a year. However, what the 'aliens' want to convey is still a mystery

A father-daughter team decoded an “alien message” that an online community tried to crack for a year. ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter sent the mock alien message to Earth from Mars in May 2023 as part of a citizen science project. 

 

The message was heard by the three observatories and the data were made available to the public. The messages had two challenges; first, to extract the signal from the raw data and second to decode it. 

 

Ken and Keli Chaffin from the US were the first to decode the signal, sent from ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, as part of a citizen science project in May 2023. According to experts, the exercise will help determine whether or not humanity is ready to make first contact with an alien civilization.

 

 

The project is backed by SETI Institute, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, and the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. Decoding the message required several hours of computing simulation. ESA reports that the Chaffins managed to crack the code after figuring out that the message has some biological features. 

Extracting the message was no challenge

The alien message is a part of "A Sign in Space," a science/art project that aims to check how humanity reacts after receiving a real alien message. Extracting the message from the raw data was not that complicated as it barely took 10 days for an online community. However, the real challenge was to decode the message. 

 

After a year-long tussle, the message was decoded on June 7, 2024, when Chaffins messaged the solutions to the founder and artistic director of the project. The success of the father-daughter team was officially announced by ESA on October 22. 

Who decoded the message?

The signals are decoded by the father-daughter team, Ken and Kelly Chaffin of America. According to them, the messages show five clusters of white dots and lines on a black background pointing to a cell formation, i.e., the creation of life. 

 

Ken and Kelly said that there are five amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, in the decoded message that create life in the universe and all are biological molecular diagrams of life-giving amino acids. 

 

In these blocks, there are atomic numbers of 1,6,7,8 pixels, which means hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.

 

The lines in these diagrams are formed using single and double bonds similar to a normal atomic diagram. The dots work here to connect them.

Brainchild of simulated extraterrestrials

The project is the brainchild of a group of "simulated extraterrestrials," which included de Paulis, as well as a computer scientist, a physicist and space lawyer, a poet, a radio engineer, and several astronomers and astrobiologists.

 

Amid all this, the answer to what aliens are trying to convey by sending pictures of five amino acids is still not clear. The mystery still needs to be solved. Now, the citizen scientists are connecting on the discord servers and debating on the meaning of the message.