Arecibo message
E9748
The Arecibo message is a 1974 interstellar radio transmission sent from the Arecibo Observatory toward a distant star cluster, encoding basic information about humanity and Earth in a binary pictorial format.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Arecibo message canonical | 6 |
| Arecibo interstellar radio message | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T56420 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Arecibo message Context triple: [Voyager Golden Record project, relatedTo, Arecibo message]
-
A.
Voyager Golden Record project
The Voyager Golden Record project was a NASA-led initiative to create and launch a phonograph record aboard the Voyager spacecraft containing sounds and images representing life and culture on Earth for any extraterrestrial intelligence that might encounter it.
-
B.
Pioneer plaque project
The Pioneer plaque project was a scientific and artistic initiative to create and place engraved messages aboard the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, intended as a symbolic introduction of humanity to any extraterrestrial intelligence that might encounter them.
-
C.
SETI
SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a scientific effort that uses astronomical observations and signal analysis to detect possible signs of intelligent life beyond Earth.
-
D.
Project Ozma
Project Ozma was the pioneering 1960 radio astronomy experiment led by Frank Drake that marked the beginning of the modern scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
-
E.
Blues for a Red Planet
"Blues for a Red Planet" is an episode of the science documentary series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage* that explores the history, science, and human fascination surrounding the planet Mars.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Arecibo message Target entity description: The Arecibo message is a 1974 interstellar radio transmission sent from the Arecibo Observatory toward a distant star cluster, encoding basic information about humanity and Earth in a binary pictorial format.
-
A.
Voyager Golden Record project
The Voyager Golden Record project was a NASA-led initiative to create and launch a phonograph record aboard the Voyager spacecraft containing sounds and images representing life and culture on Earth for any extraterrestrial intelligence that might encounter it.
-
B.
Pioneer plaque project
The Pioneer plaque project was a scientific and artistic initiative to create and place engraved messages aboard the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, intended as a symbolic introduction of humanity to any extraterrestrial intelligence that might encounter them.
-
C.
SETI
SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a scientific effort that uses astronomical observations and signal analysis to detect possible signs of intelligent life beyond Earth.
-
D.
Project Ozma
Project Ozma was the pioneering 1960 radio astronomy experiment led by Frank Drake that marked the beginning of the modern scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
-
E.
Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10 is a NASA space probe launched in 1972 that became the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and make a direct observation of Jupiter before heading into interstellar space.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
SETI experiment
ⓘ
interstellar radio message ⓘ radio transmission ⓘ |
| bitLength | 1679 bits ⓘ |
| bitLengthFactorization | 23 × 73 ⓘ |
| columns | 73 ⓘ |
| contains |
approximate number of DNA nucleotides in human genome
ⓘ
atomic numbers of key elements in DNA ⓘ average human height ⓘ diagram of Arecibo radio telescope ⓘ diagram of Solar System ⓘ formulas for sugars and bases in DNA nucleotides ⓘ graphic representation of DNA double helix ⓘ graphic representation of a human figure ⓘ human population of Earth in 1974 ⓘ indication of Earth as origin of message ⓘ numbers 1 to 10 in binary ⓘ size of Arecibo radio telescope ⓘ |
| dateSent | 1974-11-16 ⓘ |
| designedBy |
Carl Sagan
ⓘ
Frank Drake ⓘ others at Arecibo Observatory ⓘ |
| distanceToTarget | about 25,000 light-years ⓘ |
| encoding | binary ⓘ |
| followedBy |
A Message From Earth
ⓘ
Cosmic Call messages ⓘ Teen Age Message ⓘ |
| format | pictorial message ⓘ |
| intendedRecipient | hypothetical extraterrestrial intelligence ⓘ |
| language | mathematical and scientific symbolism ⓘ |
| modulationType | binary phase-shift keying ⓘ |
| name | Arecibo message self-link ⓘ |
| notableFeature |
first widely known digital interstellar message
ⓘ
uses semiprime bit length to enforce two-dimensional decoding ⓘ |
| purpose |
demonstrate capabilities of Arecibo radio telescope
ⓘ
symbolic attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Arecibo Observatory
ⓘ
SETI ⓘ interstellar communication ⓘ |
| rows | 23 ⓘ |
| sentBy |
Frank Drake
ⓘ
National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center ⓘ |
| sentFrom |
Arecibo Observatory
ⓘ
Earth ⓘ Puerto Rico ⓘ |
| target | globular star cluster M13 ⓘ |
| targetConstellation |
Heracles
ⓘ
surface form:
Hercules
|
| transmissionDuration | about 3 minutes ⓘ |
| transmissionFrequency | 2380 MHz ⓘ |
| transmissionPower | about 1000 kW ⓘ |
| yearSent | 1974 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Arecibo message Description of subject: The Arecibo message is a 1974 interstellar radio transmission sent from the Arecibo Observatory toward a distant star cluster, encoding basic information about humanity and Earth in a binary pictorial format.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Arecibo interstellar radio message