Web site sends text messages into space

LONDON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A British Web site is offering visitors the chance to broadcast text messages into outer space in the hopes that they will be discovered by alien life forms.

Chris Thomason, co-founder of SentForever.com, said the Surrey County, England-based Web site uses a large satellite dish to transmit the text into the cosmos on radio waves, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

"Lots of people believe we're not alone. They send messages saying 'I am here, I am ready', or 'Waiting for you to contact me,'" Thomason said.

"In space, radio waves travel forever or until they hit a solid body like a star or a planet," he said. "However, the radio beam gets wider and wider with distance so that if a star or planet in some distant galaxy was in the direct line, large amounts of the signal would continue straight past it."