In 1974 an interstellar radio transmission was broadcast to the globular cluster Messier 13 from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The message was 1679 bits long. The length of this message was chosen purposely because 1679 is a semiprime with the prime divisors 23 and 73. The message, when plotted in a 23 x 73 array, produces the graphic shown below:
While the human figure is the most recognized feature in the graphic, there are several other features included in the message (from Cassiday, George. "The Arecibo Message". University of Utah. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-13.):
- The numbers one to ten (white; left to right)
- The atomic numbers of the elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus, which make up deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) (purple)
- The formulas for the chemical compounds that make up the nucleotides of DNA (green)
- The estimated number of DNA nucleotides in the human genome, and a graphic of the double helix structure of DNA (white and blue, respectively)
- The dimension (physical height, 5'9") of an average man (blue/white), a graphic figure of a human being (red), and the human population of Earth which was about 4 billion at the time (white)
- A graphic of the Solar System (including Pluto), indicating which of the planets the message is coming from (yellow). The Sun is on the left and the third planet, Earth, raised toward the human figure
- A graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope and the dimension (the physical diameter) of the transmitting antenna dish (purple, white, and blue)this message:
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