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The Great Broadcast (Redirects from "Discovery of Aliens")

The Great Broadcast was an incident that resulted in the definitive discovery of intelligent alien life.

Signal from Titan

In 1975, the radio astronomer Hans Wernheimer caught a faint transmission that was later confirmed to come from Saturn’s moon Titan. The cause of the transmission was controversial, with some astronomers maintaining that the signal actually came from Saturn and was naturally occurring. However, other astronomers argued that the signal’s patterns were too regular to be naturally occurring. The signal was not considered a significant discovery until after the Great Broadcast. Although the signal has not been decoded, there is now a scientific consensus that it came from the civilization on Titan.

Probes sent from Earth

In 1979, Pioneer 11 flew by Saturn, took photographs of Titan, and continued on its way without incident. Because of the earlier discovery of Titan’s methane atmosphere, scientists were interested in a closer flyby; Voyager 1 was scheduled to fly by Titan in 1980, but NASA lost contact with it as it approached Titan. Contact with Voyager 1 was never reestablished. Voyager 2 was diverted from its mission to perform the closer flyby of Titan. However, NASA lost contact with it as it moved closer to Titan. Contact was reestablished 49 hours later, at which point scientists determined that Voyager 2 was orbiting Uranus. There was no consensus about how this had happened until after the Great Broadcast.

Although some[who?] argued that it would be wasteful to send another probe to the outer solar system, NASA developed the Humanity probe. It reached Saturn in 1989 and successfully launched its Titan lander. However, three days after the lander touched down, NASA lost contact with it and with the Humanity probe.

Since the launch of Humanity, NASA and other space agencies have sent multiple probes to Titan, all of which have been lost to the Titan Pull.

The Great Broadcast

From April 20, 1990, to April 26, 1990, all broadcast transmission and telephonic communications were jammed with this message:

We are aware of your existence. We mean you no harm, but make no further attempts to contact us. Our research is paramount.

The message repeated for the entire week with a five-second pause between each iteration. It cycled through Mandarin Chinese, English, French, Arabic, German, Spanish, and Russian.

Ramifications of the Great Broadcast

Although this was quickly proven incorrect, it was initially believed [by whom?] that the Great Broadcast was a hoax perpetrated by anarchists or terrorists. Although several organizations claimed credit for the Great Broadcast, it soon became clear that it was occurring on a global scale. It was therefore almost impossible that it could have been caused by a human source.

During the week of April 20-26, 1990, there was widespread panic and rioting. Because of unrest and because it was impossible to communicate quickly with emergency services, there was a higher number of deaths than normal during that week.

Economists have identified the Great Broadcast as a leading cause of the Great Recession of the early 1990s.

The need for paper-based communications during this week led to worldwide paper shortages; as a result, deforestation increased for a brief period. However, there are some indications that forests are beginning to recover.

The United Nations has collaborated with governments and space agencies around the world to try to prevent further extraterrestrial interference with broadcast and telephonic communication. Major efforts to construct an anti-jamming satellite network are underway, with a projected launch date of 2019.

The Great Broadcast in popular culture

Since 1990, the Great Broadcast has been one of the most popular topics of books and film.[citation needed] Significant works include: