Here we have exactly what we would expect to receive as a message from a higher intelligent source – a reply to a radio message broadcast by SETI in 1974 as a hello from humanity to the stars. Close to 27 years later in 2001, this crop pattern appeared in a field beside the Chilbolton Observatory in Hampshire, UK. This “response” time could indicate that the sender inhabits a star system around either 27 light years away if their method of communication operates instantaneously or 13-14 years light years away if it is limited to the speed of light. The Arecibo message was a series of binary digits transmitted towards the globular star cluster M13 in the hopes of communicating with intelligent extra-terrestrial life. The message contained information about human biology, our solar system and technology.
The response contains various clues as to who and what they are: biologically they are silicon based instead of carbon based with an extra strand in their DNA, they are significantly shorter than us with larger heads. It is indicated that they inhabit 3 out of 9 planets either in their star system or more likely (and more ominously) – in our own, as the solar system depicted (while depicted slightly differently) contains 9 planets including a ring for Saturn and gas giants which are emphasised as such, also slightly differently for reasons unknown. They use the same mathematical system as us and have an overall population of around 30 billion, it’s not clear what the layout of their population depiction suggests but it may be possible to work out the distribution among planets or how many exist here and elsewhere from how this is depicted.
Curiously we also have at the bottom a depiction of the device used to broadcast the message which also appeared as it’s own Agrogram the previous year in 2000. It also appeared alongside the “Face on Mars” pattern which could be a self portrait of the sender, but clearly depicts a face.
2001 was an iconic year not just for its spectacular range of crop formations, but also for Arthur C. Clarke‘s a space odyssey featuring a “Monolith” which is an alien artefact discovered by humanity. Arthur C. Clarke was famously a believer in the mysterious origins of crop circles and even produced an documentary on the phenomena.
As this is the most likely candidate for SETI signal consideration, please see the special Arecibo response poster that you can download or order a printed version.
