The Teen Age Message (TAM) was a series of interstellar radio transmissions sent from the Yevpatoria Planetary Radar to six solar-type stars during August–September 2001. The structure of the TAM was suggested by Alexander Zaitsev, Chief Scientist at Russia's Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics. The message's content and target stars were selected by a group of teens from four Russian cities, who collaborated in person and via the Internet. Each transmission comprised three sections: a sounding, a live theremin concert, and digital data including images and text. TAM was humanity's fourth Active SETI broadcast and the first musical interstellar radio message.

Overview

Zaitsev's proposal for a musical message – the "First Theremin Concert for Extraterrestrials" – was submitted to the Arecibo Observatory in July 2000. It was rejected amid concerns over the dangers posed by advertising the presence of humanity to unknown and possibly highly advanced civilizations. After another unsuccessful attempt to garner support, the project was backed by the Yevpatoria RT-70 radio telescope with funding from the Education Department of Moscow. Unlike the previous digital-only messages Arecibo-1974 and Cosmic Call 1, TAM had a three-part structure, each containing different forms of information. Such structure was suggested by Alexander Zaitsev, and was intended to make the message easier to detect and interpret. The three elements of each transmission were:

  1. A coherent sounding signal with slow Doppler wavelength tuning to imitate transmission from the Sun's center. This signal was transmitted in order to help extraterrestrials detect the TAM and diagnose the radio propagation effect of the interstellar medium.
  2. Binary digital information similar to the Arecibo message, including the logotype of TAM, written greetings in Russian and English, and artistic drawings. This section and the concert program were composed by teens from different parts of Russia.

Three theremin performers from the Moscow Theremin Center – Lydia Kavina, Yana Aksenova, and Anton Kerchenko – were invited to perform seven songs selected by students.

Sonograms

Sonograms (frequency variations) of 40-second pieces of three musical compositions from The First Theremin Concert: (from left to right) the last movement of the 9th Symphony by Beethoven, “The Swan” by Saint-Saens, and “Summertime” by Gershwin.

Single-side band (SSB) modulation was used for up-conversion of the Theremin's analog audio signals to carrier frequency 5010 MHz (6 cm wavelength) for sending toward the target stars.

Targets

The target stars were:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|-

! scope="col" | HD designation

! scope="col" | Constellation

! scope="col" | Distance (ly)

! scope="col" | Spectral type

! scope="col" | Signal power (kW)

! scope="col" | Date sent

! scope="col" | Arrival date

|-

|HD 197076

|Delphinus

|68.5

|G5V

|126

|August 29, 2001

|February 2070

|-

|HD 95128

|Ursa Major

|45.9

|G0V

|96

|September 3, 2001

|July 2047

|-

|HD 50692

|Gemini

|56.3

|G0V

|96

|September 3, 2001

|December 2057

|-

|HD 126053

|Virgo

|57.4

|G1V

|96

|September 3, 2001

|January 2059

|-

|HD 76151

|Hydra

|55.7

|G2V

|96

|September 4, 2001

|May 2057

|-

|HD 193664

|Draco

|57.4

|G3V

|96

|September 4, 2001

|January 2059

|}

See also

  • Across the Universe (message)
  • Communication with extraterrestrial intelligence
  • List of interstellar radio messages
  • Search for extraterrestrial intelligence
  • The Morse Message (1962)

References

Further reading

  • Self-Decoding Messages
  • A Teen-Age Message to the Stars
  • Sending and Searching for Interstellar Messages
  • Listen to six Theremin melodies as recorded for the Theremin concert
  • Audio clip of the Gershwin melody played on theremin