BMBF - Wissenschaftsjahr 2023

Ausschnitt einer Galaxie.

August to September 2001: The Teen Age Message

The cosmic Theremin concert

The Teen Age Message (TAM) was a series of interstellar radio transmissions sent by the Evpatoria Planetary Radar (EPR) to six Sun-like stars from August to September 2001. The structure of the TAM was proposed by Alexander Zaitsev, a senior scientist at the Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics in Russia.

The content and target stars of the message were selected by a group of young people from four Russian cities who collaborated in person and via the internet. Unlike previous digital messages like the "Arecibo Message" and the "Cosmic Call 1", TAM had a three-part structure, with each part containing different information. This structure was intended to make the message easier to recognise and to interpret.

Vier Satelliten unter einem klaren Nachthimmel
© Pierluigi D'Amelio, Pixabay

The three elements of each transmission were:

1. A coherent sounding signal with slow Doppler wavelength tuning to imitate a transmission from the centre of the Sun. This signal was sent to help aliens detect the TAM.

2. Analogue information recorded with the a so-called theremin. This electric musical instrument produces a quasi-sinusoidal signal that can be easily extracted from the background noise of space. There were seven musical compositions in the "First Theremin Concert for Aliens".

3. Binary digital information similar to the Arecibo message, including TAM's logo, written greetings in Russian and English, and artistic drawings. This section and the concert programme were compiled by teenagers from different parts of Russia.

Initially, Zaitsev proposed his idea for the "First Theremin Concert for Aliens" to the Arecibo Observatory in July 2000. However, it was rejected due to concerns that advertising humanity's presence to unknown and possibly advanced civilisations could be dangerous. After another unsuccessful attempt to gain support, the project was implemented by the Yevpatoria RT-70 radio telescope with funding from the Ministry of Education in Moscow.

The Teen Age Message was thus the first live cosmic concert broadcasted from Earth and will echo through space for a very long time to come.

What is SETI?

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a scientific endeavour to discover extraterrestrial intelligence in the universe. SETI researchers look for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life by analysing radio signals from space. Their aim is to find signals that indicate conscious communication or technological activity beyond Earth. Using powerful telescopes and advanced signal processing techniques, SETI is trying to find answers to one of humanity's biggest questions: Are we alone in the universe or are there other intelligent civilisations out there?

In addition to searching for indicative signals, researchers in the past have deliberately sent messages and signals from Earth into space for possible extraterrestrial intelligences to receive. The active sending of these SETI messages is also known as METI (Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence). METI is a controversial topic; the main argument against METI being that it may attract the attention of intelligent and potentially hostile extraterrestrials.