Scientists Plan To Send Transmission To Proxima B; Is This A New Strategy For Alien Contact?

The scientists are planning to send a powerful transmission to Proxima B, which is the closest Earth-like exoplanet of the Solar System. Some speculate that this could be a way to send the message to aliens in outer space.

The Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, METI, a new San Francisco-based organization, aims to send the transmission to the nearest star Proxima Centauri and other distant neighborhoods that are hundreds or thousands of lightyears away by the end of 2018.

Douglas Vakoch, the president of the METI, stated that if they want to start an exchange over the course of many generations, they want to learn and share information. He further stated that the plan could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

METI wants to have laser or radio signals that would beam out to Proxima b. This exoplanet orbits Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to the Solar System and around 4.25 lightyears away from the Earth. One of their works includes determining what they should say and considering the possibility that other lifeforms will have developed the same mathematical laws and scientific hypotheses that they have. The organization needs $1 million to fund the staff and building the powerful transmitter in an isolated location, according to Mercury News.

Meanwhile, the physicist, Mark Buchanan, seems to argue with the organization's plan. He said that they might be searching for trouble if they start flinging messages out into space. Likewise, Stephen Hawking said that it is too risky to try and chat to civilizations that are probably far more advanced than humans are. On the other hand, the experts at METI are certain that the benefits of reaching out into space and learning more about the place in the universe outweigh the risks, according to Science Alert.

Douglas Vakoch said that perhaps for some civilizations...they need to take the initiative to make the first contact. He further said that the role of the scientist is to test hypotheses. In METI, they can empirically test the hypotheses that transmitting an intentional signal will elicit a reply.