Broadcast your message into cosmos in a celestial time capsule

A group of collaborators from the UK have envisioned a cultural project aimed at creating a celestial time capsule and send messages from citizens across the globe into space at the speed of light. Interstellar message bottle is expected to reach the Polaris star over the next 434 years.

Letters from the public will be converted into radio waves and broadcasted toward the North Star, Polaris in autumn 2016. Interstellar messages will contain people's response on how will our present environmental interactions shape the future, and are expected to reach the desired destination in 434 years.

The Polaris star was chosen due to its cultural meaning, as it served as a reference point for navigators and stargazers throughout the history of humankind.

21 hours after the transmission, the signal will travel farther in space than our first celestial message send in 1977 with Voyager 1.

A Simple Response to an Elemental Message is a collaborative project between the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh, the UK Astronomical Technology Center (UKATC), and other partners.

"We are at a pivotal point in this planet’s history. Our present ecological decisions will have a massive impact on the future for all Earth’s inhabitants. This project will create a culturally-inspired message in a bottle capturing global perspectives that will travel into space for eons," said Paul Quast, the project coordinator and a postgraduate student at the Edinburgh College of Art.

So, if you feel like sharing your thoughts with the stars, now is a good time, because people across the globe are invited to leave messages they wish to be broadcasted into the cosmos at the project's official website. At the time, the website is available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese but will soon also be available in German, Arabic, Russian and Mandarin.

Featured image credit: A Simple Response