Have our broadcasts already reached a planet, or planets, where there is intelligent life?

The SETI Institute (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) continues its tireless search in every corner of space in an effort to capture some extra-terrestrial transmission or sign that will finally confirm that we are not alone in this universe. At the same time, however, there are many who are asking a different question, and that is: Have our broadcasts already reached a planet, or planets, where there is intelligent life? And if the answer to this rather exciting question should be yes, then in what language did aliens first hear our transmissions?

Our Travelling Voices

Obviously we have no knowledge of the types of languages spoken by aliens, so we can only speculate what their first reaction might have been upon hearing us speak. To carry this a little further and imagine this possibility, we must then consider the following historical and technical data: both television and radio waves travel through space at around 300,000 km/sec – or at the speed of light. We also know that it was in the early 20th century, possibly around 1920, that the first radio broadcasts were emitted; and then a decade-or-so later we emitted our first television broadcasts.

In both these instances, the signals left Earth heading out into all directions of space. This means that they have already travelled around 100 years at the speed of light! So imagine how far our voices must have travelled so far – and they’re still going! So can we assume that any civilized nation close to our galactic neighbourhood must already be quite familiar with our music, our voices, television shows, and so on? And to take it just one small step further, maybe they’ve already responded! Perhaps we need to wait the same amount of time to receive their transmissions!

Our ‘Sounds of Earth’ Message

Did you know that in the early 1970s a message was sent into space that was designed specifically for other intelligent races; these were not mere broadcasts that had been released into space without any predetermined recipient. We’re referring to the golden record called Sounds of Earth that travelled with the Voyager probes: it contained recorded greetings in 56 languages, including a variety of details and data about our planet, our cultures and our biodiversity, our music, images, and even whale songs. The recipients of this humble message will soon realise that our earth is a mere blue dot in infinite space, but it’s one that has an enviable cultural and linguistic wealth.

At this point in time, Eging Translation is not able to translate any alien languages; however, just give us time! But, we can translate pretty much everything else, so if you have a document that requires translation, whether it be a large or small project, The Fastest Translation Services on Earth are at your service. Ask us now for an obligation free quotation.