Space agencies should beam messages — including digitized images of naked humans — into space in the hope of luring aliens to Earth, astronomers have suggested.
A team of scientists working on a project called “Beacon in the Galaxy” encouraged the unconventional move in a study, which was published on the online database arXiv in April.
The report, which has not been peer-reviewed, said a pixelated illustration of a naked man and woman waving could be inviting to extraterrestrials.
In addition to the graphic depicting the couple, it should also include a message in binary code, which is composed of a string of 0s and 1s.
“Though the concept of mathematics in human terms is potentially unrecognizable to extra-terrestrial intelligence, binary is likely universal across all intelligence,” scientists wrote in the report.
“Binary is the simplest form of mathematics as it involves only two opposing states: zero and one, yes or no, black or white, mass or empty space.”
Such messages wouldn’t be the first time that depictions of naked humans were sent to space.The Pioneer plaques, which were sent to space on the 1972 Pioneer 10 and 1973 Pioneer 11 missions, also featured drawings of naked humans.
Correction: This article previously reported that NASA planned to launch pictures of naked humans into space. Though NASA scientists were involved in the study, the project is not backed by the space agency. The report suggests the concept of sending messages into space to reach extra terrestrials, though does not detail any plans by NASA to do so.