Arecibo message
1974 message into space
The Arecibo message is an interstellar radio message carrying basic information about humanity and Earth that was sent to the globular cluster Messier 13 (M13) in 1974. It was meant as a demonstration of human technological achievement rather than a real attempt to enter into a conversation with extraterrestrials.
The message was broadcast into space a single time via frequency-modulated radio waves at a ceremony to mark the remodeling of the Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico on 16 November 1974. The message was aimed at the current location of M13, about 25,000 light years from Earth, because M13 was a large and relatively close collection of stars that was available in the sky at the time and place of the ceremony. When correctly translated into graphics, characters, and spaces, the 1,679 bits of data contained within the message form the image shown here.
Description
The content of the Arecibo message was designed by a group of Cornell University and Arecibo scientists: Frank Drake, formulator of the Drake equation; James C. G. Walker; Linda M. French; and Richard Isaacman. Carl Sagan and others also contributed. The message was meant more as a demonstration of human technological achievement than a serious attempt to enter into a conversation with possible extraterrestrials. As globular cluster M13, at which the message was aimed, is more than 25,000 light-years from Earth, the message, traveling at the speed of light, will take at least 25,000 years to arrive there. By that time, the core of M13 will no longer be in precisely the same location because of the orbit of the star cluster around the Galactic Center.
“Arecibo message” enters the record as 1974 message into space. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Arecibo, message and space can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Arecibo message” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Arecibo, message and space provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q384071. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1974.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Arecibo message” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.