The existence of extraterrestrials have been endlessly debated throughout the world. If they are out there, a group of scientists are making sure they know we are out here. All things go according to plan, the Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (METI) will be reaching out to other life forms in space within a year or so.
According to a report from Phys Org, the San Francisco-based organization are working on sending "messages" to other planets using radio or laser signals. The project is the first of its kind; to transmit powerful and sustained signals to space throughout a number of years.
The plan is to dispatch the signals first to a rocky planet orbiting the nearest star besides the sun called Proxima Centauri. After that, the target of these signals will be destinations further away, up to hundreds or even thousands of light years away.
"If we want to start an exchange over the course of many generations, we want to learn and share information," said Douglas Vakoch, the president of METI and former director of the Interstellar Message Composition at the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI).
In relation with this work, METI will be hosting two different workshops in the upcoming year. They will also be beginning to raise the $1 million the project needs annually to fund the creation and maintenance of the transmitter and its staff.
Just earlier this month, six bursts of radio waves from the constellation Auriga three billion light years away had the world wondering if aliens were trying to contact us form their corner of the universe, according to a report from the Daily Mail. Researchers from McGill University in Montreal, Canada detected these radio waves and published their findings in The Astrophysical Journal.