Do aliens exist? Response to a message sent 40 years back holds the answer

Astronomers in Japan are expecting an extraterrestrial response to radio signals transmitted into space four decades ago, aimed at confirming the presence of extraterrestrial life.

According to a report from Asahi Shimbun, Professors Masaki Morimoto and Hisashi Hirabayashi used Stanford University's antenna to send a series of radio signals, including 13 drawings illustrating Earth's history and humanity's appearance, on August 15, 1983.

Now, a team led by Shinya Narusawa at the University of Hyogo is preparing to deploy a 64-metre-wide antenna in Saku, Nagano Prefecture.

They hope to detect any radio signals in response to the 1983 message.

The astronomers are focusing on Altair, a star 16.7 light years away in the Aquila constellation, expecting a potential response around this time, according to report in Metro.

The team aims to scan the skies for a reply on August 22, coinciding with Tanabata, the 'star festival' in Japan, which is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month according to the Lunar Calendar.

Narusawa believes that the vast universe likely hosts intelligent life beyond Earth, pointing out the numerous exoplanets discovered since the 1990s.

He told Japanese media that Altair, with its potentially habitable planet, is a prime candidate for such extraterrestrial habitat.

Professor Masaki Morimoto was a Japanese pioneer in the field known as the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). He worked at the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory of the University of Tokyo, now part of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. He died in 2010.