Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer - Arecibo Project Phoenix in Puerto Rico

"We don’t look for cell phones, of course. Our intention is to find a beacon either accidentally or deliberately pointed our way �?a radio signal that would tell us we’re not alone in the galaxy. "

Project Phoenix is a systematic search of nearby star systems, with emphasis on those that seem to be most like the Sun. For hours at a time, the 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo antenna keeps its gaze fixed on a single star, its motors grinding as it compensates for Earth’s rotation.

The Project Phoenix staff especially appreciates the sensitivity. We can detect a narrow-band broadcast from another world if it's splashing as little as 0.0000000000000000000001 watts of power onto the observatory's 1,000-foot dish. If aliens 100 light-years distant wield an Arecibo-sized antenna, a pipsqueak 10 kilowatt transmitter will be sufficient to get in touch. That's the power consumed by a dozen hair driers.

But would they try to get in touch? After all, earthlings don't deliberately broadcast to aliens, so why should the aliens broadcast to us? Answering this question requires some insight into alien psychology. Alas, the professional literature on this subject is meager. The extraterrestrials may have large transmitters set up to search for incoming comets, or in service as a galactic GPS system. Maybe they've established space colonies and are beaming communiques back and forth. Earthlings have had radio for a century. Some aliens may have had it for tens of millennia. It's hard to guess what use they might make of this technology

But one thing is indisputable; radio is the least expensive way to send bits of information from star to star. Whatever the aliens might be up to, it is more than reasonable to assume that they're filling the galaxy with radio signals.

So The System grinds on, stepping methodically up the dial, moving from star to star. In the last week, the most exciting source has been 4181, an F7 star 250 light-years away. The System found a signal in the direction of 4181 that was so compelling, it rang pagers back in California. The putative alien transmission turned out to be only a bit of strong, earthly radar.

That was a false alarm, but the real thing could still happen. There's a magnum of Mumm Cuvee Napa chilling in the corner refrigerator, just in case.

Some folks think we're chasing wild geese, just twiddling our electronic thumbs. Most of the world, to be candid, is probably oblivious. Project Phoenix is a small experiment, with a payroll of two dozen people. It's taking place in a part of Puerto Rico that few people care about. What happens here is far removed from the immediate tribulations of ordinary life. But if the signal comes in, this small effort will initiate a supremely profound reaction. For a million years, we have been like fish in a bowl, busy with our own lives. A SETI success would transport us to the ocean, opening us to the myriad possibilities of a vast and populated cosmos.

In 1974, the world's largest radio telescope was built at Arecibo in Puerto Rico. It was decided to send a radio transmission into space, containing a coded message about human beings, towards a globular star cluster called M13 in the constellation of Hercules. It would take the message around 74,000 years to arrive, so we shall not be around even if ETs from M13 send a reply.  (Hercules is a constellation close to 24,000 light years away, with approximately 300 suns in it.)

The picture was sent in binary code - that is in 0's and 1's. It was in the form of a grid, mostly containing white squares ( 0's ) but with the message in black squares (1's) . It contained a crude picture of a human being, with two legs and a head, the atomic numbers of the chemicals from which we are formed (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus) and a picture of the double helix of DNA.

On August 13, 2001, in a next to the observatory at Chilbolton, Hampshire, England, what seemed to be a reply was received in the form of 'tramples' marks in the crop. About five days later, there was another 'transmission'. The first formation was that of an alien face, in which the face was formed of 'pixels' in the manner of dots in a newspaper photograph, while the second formation was a 'reply' to the Arecibo binary message.

Dr. Frank Drank and astronomer Carl Sagan designed the original message with the prime numbers 23 and 27 to form a matrix of the 1679 units.

The crop formations found in the field were 145 by 165 feet, including the 'frame' around the alien face. The second formation was nearly 90 by 265 feet as measured by Charles R. Mallett.

From ground level, the formations look like chaos. They are only recognizable from the air. The crop was barely two feet fall, with tufts of crop making up the pixels. Some of the tufts were only a few stems wide - others much larger.  There are 412 grain-matrix dots - the biggest 3 yards in diameter.The pattern is set up in a diamond-fashion of 41 degrees. (Exactly 40.89 degrees)

Further examination of the face formation shows more sacred geometry - finally deciphering that the 'Seal of Solomon' of two interlocking triangles over the nose area. When a circle is drawn around the hexagram, it forms an exact tangent with the inner limit of the upper and lower frame sides and the outer  limit of the left and right sides of the frame. The width of the frame itself is also proof of the correct proportions, as it can only have the width it really has in the field, and none else embrace the embedded secrets. (per Jay  Goldner "Messages From Space)

Researchers tried to compare the alien face  to a human face and found the proportions off. They also tried comparing it to the face on Mars with the different results. Amazingly, the matrix is similar.  Does this mean that aliens are from Mars?

The secondary formation had some intriguing differences from the one we sent out in the radio transmission.  Their message added silicon to the list of basic elements necessary in the body, thus also changing the DNA structure. Carl Sagan estimated that our DNA structure has 4,294,441,822 base pairs. The return message in the crop formation showed that the ETs have 4,294,955,110 sequences. Another difference is that the ETs have a third strand in their DNA compared to our 2.  And their size was 1/2 of ours but that there were twice as many of them as of us humans.

In our radio   transmission - man is shown over the Earth symbol, in the crop formation, the home planet of the aliens was shown to be Mars. NASA denies that there is any life on Mars, but tells us that there is the right combination of chemicals on several of Jupiter's moons - water and silicon.  The major moons are IO, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.