Scientists believe that today may be the day they receive a response from aliens, 40 years after sending a message into space.
Astronomers at Stanford University beamed a message to space using an antenna on August 15, 1983, and believe today (August 22, 2023) is the earliest we might get a response back from extraterrestrial beings.
Professors Masaki Morimoto and Hisashi Hirabayashi used the antenna to send bursts of radio signals into the cosmos, consisting of 13 drawings depicting the history of life on Earth, as well as the structure of DNA, and our solar system.
The waves were sent toward a star called Altair, which is 16.7 light-years away from the Earth, and today's team, led by Shinya Narusawa at the University of Hyogo, Japan, predicts that today is the earliest we could get a response if there is intelligent life living near Altair.
The hope was that if intelligent life existed on planets near Altair - which is found in the Aquila constellation and is the 12th brightest star in the sky - they would receive our message and respond in kind, which would take around 40 years to come back.
Narusawa and the team will use the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) antenna to seek out any signs of a response this evening, listening out for any unusual radio signals from 10PM local time (9AM ET)
He told the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun: "A large number of exoplanets have been detected since the 1990s. Altair may have a planet whose environment can sustain life."
Today's date of August 22 also holds a special symbolism in Japan, as the country celebrates Tanabata, which is known as the 'star festival'.
The date usually falls on the seventh day of the seventh month (July 7), but on the lunar calendar, Tanabata falls today, which is why this date was chosen.
However, even if the original message that was sent from Earth to space was successful, it may take longer to receive a response - if intelligent life exists and is able to decode our message.
Sadly Professor Morimoto, who is described as "an inspiration for the younger generations entering the newly born radio astronomy community in Japan", will not get to find out if the communication was successful as he died in 2010.
Dr. Hirabayashi, who is now a professor emeritus at JAXA and who has written books on intelligent extraterrestrial life, will no doubt be keeping a close eye at any developments as they happen, today and beyond.
These messages are not the only quests to find extraterrestrial life, however, as two missions - the ESA's Juice and NASA's Europa Clipper - are set to voyage to Jupiter's icy moons in search of traces of life, arriving in 2030.
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus was also recently found to have all the elements essential for life contained in its subsurface oceans - so it could very well be that there is life outside of planet Earth.
We just have to wait and see whether they'll message us back.