Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Chan Tysor
Aired July 05, 2003 - 09:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You don't have to be an astronaut to be involved in a unique space mission this weekend. It's called Cosmic Call.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, and these...
WHITFIELD: And it's all about us earthlings, and...
OSBORN: It does, and it gives us earthlings a chance...
WHITFIELD: Everything else.
OSBORN: ... to try and communicate with extraterrestrials, solicit a response from aliens. It's happening this weekend. Scientists are transmitting messages from people across the globe to potential, as we said, extraterrestrial life all across the galaxy.
This ultimate long-distance call will be made with a help of a massive astronomy dish, which you see there. It's in the Ukraine.
For more on this we're joined by Chan Tysor of Team Encounter.
Good morning to you.
This is quite an endeavor.
CHAN TYSOR, TEAM ENCOUNTER: Good morning. Yes, it is. It's a lot of fun.
OSBORN: Well, let's start right with the heart of this. You're encouraging people to send a message to extraterrestrials, aliens, in outer space?
TYSOR: That's exactly what we do. We create real space missions that the public can join in. There's really three parts to the message that we're transmitting from Yepatoria (ph). There's a scientific component to the message, which is similar to the transmission that was sent in 1974 from the Aricebo dish. But ours is much more detailed.
It's based on mathematics, which we assume is a universal language. So it's designed to be something that anyone can understand, any intelligence could understand, assuming that mathematics is indeed universal.
The message, the scientific message, contains information about our planet, ourselves, our DNA, about our cells, how they divide. And then at the end of that scientific message, we request that they send one back.
We're sending the message to five target stars. The nearest one is about 38 light-years away. The farthest is, I think, 41 light- years away.
WHITFIELD: So Chan...
TYSOR: Go ahead.
WHITFIELD: ... can I interrupt you for a second?
TYSOR: Yes, please.
WHITFIELD: ... while you've got the message in hand, you, you know, and it's not like we're suggesting that these extraterrestrials are sitting at a computer, their laptop, right, and receiving these messages. So how are you actually delivering the messages to these stars that you mentioned?
TYSOR: Well, we use the gigantic dish in the Ukraine. It's a 70-meter radioastronomy dish, it's the largest steerable radioastronomy facility in the world. It's very powerful. We transmit at 150 kilowatts and we transmit at 5,010 megahertz. So the message will survive if it goes through the interstellar medium with static (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
WHITFIELD: And the message, then, has to be conveyed in a way in which everything can understand it, right? So how did you come up with this universal language? Because we don't know...
TYSOR: Our science team...
WHITFIELD: ... that they have the English word.
TYSOR: Right. Actually, it's a thought that has been worked on for years, since the 1960s. The SETI community has been crafting messages, and we've taken the work that they've done and built upon it.
The way it works is, we introduce mathematics with symbols, one equals one, et cetera, et cetera. It's very simple, it's a very elegant message, again, based on that. But we're able, with the development of this language, once we've explained it, to explain some very complex messages.
Now, it's transmitted in ones and zeros, in bits, that come to the receiver, assuming that there may be one. And in such a way that they can piece together this message and find out what we're trying to communicate.
OSBORN: We want to say thank you...
TYSOR: You mentioned the... OSBORN: ... to Chan Tysor there. We're so sorry to cut you off. Very interesting. Very significant information, this attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial. We appreciate your time this morning.
TYSOR: Thank you.
OSBORN: Sure.
One of the interesting things about this, they use a solar cell, which uses the pressure of sunlight. It takes off in something the size of a suitcase, but expands to be larger than the largest commercial airplane, this solar sail carrying this message that...
WHITFIELD: Wow.
OSBORN: ... he was just talking about.
WHITFIELD: It sounds like an incredible promise.
OSBORN: Really is.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 5, 2003 - 09:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You don't have to be an astronaut to be involved in a unique space mission this weekend. It's called Cosmic Call.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, and these...
WHITFIELD: And it's all about us earthlings, and...
OSBORN: It does, and it gives us earthlings a chance...
WHITFIELD: Everything else.
OSBORN: ... to try and communicate with extraterrestrials, solicit a response from aliens. It's happening this weekend. Scientists are transmitting messages from people across the globe to potential, as we said, extraterrestrial life all across the galaxy.
This ultimate long-distance call will be made with a help of a massive astronomy dish, which you see there. It's in the Ukraine.
For more on this we're joined by Chan Tysor of Team Encounter.
Good morning to you.
This is quite an endeavor.
CHAN TYSOR, TEAM ENCOUNTER: Good morning. Yes, it is. It's a lot of fun.
OSBORN: Well, let's start right with the heart of this. You're encouraging people to send a message to extraterrestrials, aliens, in outer space?
TYSOR: That's exactly what we do. We create real space missions that the public can join in. There's really three parts to the message that we're transmitting from Yepatoria (ph). There's a scientific component to the message, which is similar to the transmission that was sent in 1974 from the Aricebo dish. But ours is much more detailed.
It's based on mathematics, which we assume is a universal language. So it's designed to be something that anyone can understand, any intelligence could understand, assuming that mathematics is indeed universal.
The message, the scientific message, contains information about our planet, ourselves, our DNA, about our cells, how they divide. And then at the end of that scientific message, we request that they send one back.
We're sending the message to five target stars. The nearest one is about 38 light-years away. The farthest is, I think, 41 light- years away.
WHITFIELD: So Chan...
TYSOR: Go ahead.
WHITFIELD: ... can I interrupt you for a second?
TYSOR: Yes, please.
WHITFIELD: ... while you've got the message in hand, you, you know, and it's not like we're suggesting that these extraterrestrials are sitting at a computer, their laptop, right, and receiving these messages. So how are you actually delivering the messages to these stars that you mentioned?
TYSOR: Well, we use the gigantic dish in the Ukraine. It's a 70-meter radioastronomy dish, it's the largest steerable radioastronomy facility in the world. It's very powerful. We transmit at 150 kilowatts and we transmit at 5,010 megahertz. So the message will survive if it goes through the interstellar medium with static (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
WHITFIELD: And the message, then, has to be conveyed in a way in which everything can understand it, right? So how did you come up with this universal language? Because we don't know...
TYSOR: Our science team...
WHITFIELD: ... that they have the English word.
TYSOR: Right. Actually, it's a thought that has been worked on for years, since the 1960s. The SETI community has been crafting messages, and we've taken the work that they've done and built upon it.
The way it works is, we introduce mathematics with symbols, one equals one, et cetera, et cetera. It's very simple, it's a very elegant message, again, based on that. But we're able, with the development of this language, once we've explained it, to explain some very complex messages.
Now, it's transmitted in ones and zeros, in bits, that come to the receiver, assuming that there may be one. And in such a way that they can piece together this message and find out what we're trying to communicate.
OSBORN: We want to say thank you...
TYSOR: You mentioned the... OSBORN: ... to Chan Tysor there. We're so sorry to cut you off. Very interesting. Very significant information, this attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial. We appreciate your time this morning.
TYSOR: Thank you.
OSBORN: Sure.
One of the interesting things about this, they use a solar cell, which uses the pressure of sunlight. It takes off in something the size of a suitcase, but expands to be larger than the largest commercial airplane, this solar sail carrying this message that...
WHITFIELD: Wow.
OSBORN: ... he was just talking about.
WHITFIELD: It sounds like an incredible promise.
OSBORN: Really is.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
