Astronomers Suggest Protocol for Letters to Aliens

The 1974 message.

Messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence (METI) is a branch of study concerned with constructing and broadcasting a message toward habitable planets. The development of a consistent protocol for messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence is being created to provide constraints and guidelines for the construction of a message in order to maximize the probability that the message effectively communicates. 

A METI protocol considers several factors including signal encoding, message length, information content, anthropocentrism, transmission method, and transmission periodicity. Once developed, the protocol will be released for testing on different human groups worldwide and across cultural boundaries. 

An effective message to extraterrestrials should be understandable by humans, and releasing the protocol for testing will allow us to improve the protocol and develop potential messages. The development of a METI protocol will serve to improve the quality of messages to extraterrestrials. [1][2]