What if an extraterrestrial civilization contacted Earth? “A Sign in Space” was simulated by a worldwide collaboration of space scientists and artists.

According to SETI Institute, which directed the initiative, the goal was to engage a global community of specialists and the public to decipher and interpret an alien communication.

The European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft, orbiting Mars, sent an encrypted message to Earth on May 24, 2023, to imitate alien communication.

“A Sign in Space” simulates Earth receiving extraterrestrial communication.

Humanity has always sought meaning in dramatic and transformational events. An alien message would revolutionize humanity. “A Sign in Space offers the unprecedented opportunity to tangibly rehearse and prepare for this scenario through global collaboration, fostering an open-ended search for meaning across all cultures and disciplines,” stated Daniela de Paulis in a press statement. De Paulis created A Sign in Space.

The encoded message will be detected by the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA), the Green Bank Observatory’s Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics’ Medicina Radio Astronomical Station observatory.

De Paulis and team’s message is unknown. To enable public decoding and interpretation. ATA, GBT, and Medicina are processing and distributing the signal. SETI is storing data through Breakthrough Listen Open Data Archive and Filecoin, a decentralized storage network.