Astronomers hope to receive alien reply today after message beamed into space 40 years ago

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Astronomers are anxiously waiting to see if today will be the day humanity finds out if we have any intelligent neighbors in the cosmos — four decades after sending a message out into the universe.

The message contained 13 drawings depicting the history of life on Earth through the stages of evolution.

It was then transcribed into radio waves and beamed out into space by astronomers at Stanford University on Aug. 15, 1983, with the intention of making contact with intelligent alien life in the future.

Today, scientists in Japan will start scanning the sky for a reply, according to the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

Altair — the 12th brightest star in the night sky, found in the Aquila constellation 16.7 light-years away from our pale blue dot — could be the first area of the observable universe to send back a responding message as early as 9 a.m. (EST) today, the outlet reported.

“A large number of exoplanets have been detected since the 1990s,” said Shinya Narusawa, a professor at the University of Hyogo in Japan, who is now leading the team tasked with searching the sky for any unusual radio signals, told the outlet.

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Scientists are prepared to wait longer if no answers are found today, and the mission is far from being considered a failure if no replies are detected during the initial search.

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