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If you could have a conversation with an alien, what would you say?

Well, that's exactly what scientists have been looking into! They've come up with a special message to send into space which they hope will one day reach aliens.

The binary-coded message, which has been named the Beacon in the Galaxy (BITG), has information about life on Earth, the Solar System, what humans look like and it also invites any extra-terrestrial beings who come across it to respond.

"The idea of communication with ETIs [extra-terrestrial intelligences] is an incredibly intriguing development in the scientific exploration of the cosmos and has only become technically possible in just the last several decades," the team of researchers which includes Nasa researcher Jonathan Jiang wrote in a paper.

"To seize this opportunity, the BITG message has been ideally designed to be sent by the most advanced of these instruments," they said.

It's not the first time humans have attempted to make contact with life beyond the Earth. In 1974, a coded radio message which included some basic information about humans and the Earth was beamed into space from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

It was all part of events which were held to draw attention to an impressive upgrade to the Arecibo Radio Telescope, although some of the researchers are believed to have genuinely hoped to make contact with aliens. Unfortunately, this is yet to happen.

However, the researchers who came up with this latest message have specifically done so with the aim of it reaching extra-terrestrial beings.

"Unlike the Arecibo Message, which was intended primarily as a technological demonstration of what modern radio astronomy makes possible, the BITG message literally aims for the most likely area in the Milky Way containing intelligent life," the researchers said in the paper.

It also has information about the most appropriate way of sending the message, where in the Milky Way is most likely to contain intelligent life and the best time to send it.

If contact is made one day, it's hoped more complex information can be shared with any aliens living in space, including the rules of chess!

If you could send a message to aliens, what would you want to say? Is there anything you'd want them to tell you? Let us know in the comments below!