Mankind continues to look for signs of life in space by listening to the universe. The SETI project is most concerned with the study of extraterrestrial civilizations, so scientists are now preparing to receive a potential message from them. To do this, the SETI team performed a small test simulating receiving such a message.

On May 24, at 6:00 pm Kiev time, the European probe Trace Gas Orbiter Mars sent a coded message to Earth from Mars’ orbit. 16 minutes later it was picked up by three major radio telescopes on Earth, which launched a global effort to decipher the “mysterious” message.

Signal transmission occurred as part of the multi-weekly A Sign in Space project led by Daniela de Paulis of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California and Daniela de Paulis of the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia.

“Receiving a message from an extraterrestrial civilization will be an incredible experience for humanity. A Sign in Space offers an unprecedented opportunity to concretely rehearse this scenario and prepare for it,” commented the scientist.

The signal was intercepted by the Green Bank Observatory, the SETI Institute’s Alenovsky Telescope, and the Medicina radio astronomy station. Researchers at each of these facilities will now process the signal and present it to their colleagues and general public around the world. The project team wants people with different experiences to examine the signal and do their best to decipher it.