Arecibo Message Celebrates 50 Years as Humanity's First Interstellar Broadcast

Sent in 1974, the Arecibo Message remains a symbol of humanity's quest to reach out to potential extraterrestrial life.

The Arecibo Message, designed by Frank Drake and others, was a broadcast aimed at contacting extraterrestrial civilizations, sent from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Composed of 1,679 binary digits, the message included information about human DNA, our solar system, and a depiction of a human figure.
The message was aimed at the globular star cluster Messier 13, located about 25,000 light-years away, and is currently 50 light-years from Earth.
While the Arecibo Observatory itself collapsed in 2020, the message continues to symbolize humanity's scientific curiosity and hope for cosmic connection.
The debate over the ethics of interstellar messaging persists, with some viewing it as a potential risk, while others see it as a necessary step in exploring the cosmos.