fields

Logo

Contemplating using the old Fields logo from early nineties.

The shape is derived from the ‘image’ of the solar system represented in the binary transmission from the Arecibo telescope in the Search for Terrestrial Intelligence. In 1974 a number of modifications had been carried out to the transmitter, enabling it to broadcast signals at a power of up to 20 terawatts (1 terawatt = 1 trillion watts) and as an inaugural test of these improvements it was decided by SETI to transmit an encoded message to the heavens. This signal was aimed towards the globular star cluster M13, some 25,000 light years away and consisting of some 300,000 stars in the constellation of Hercules.

The message was actually transmitted on November 16th 1974 and consisted of 1679 pulses of binary code (0’s and 1’s) – which took a little under three minutes to transmit. It was transmitted on a frequency of 2380MHz (which is significant later).