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Update: The submission deadline for new message has passed. The packed is now being converted and packaged to be transmitted on August 29.

If you sometimes get tired of talking to your fellow Earthlings, consider sending a message to beings who could be living 20.3 light years away via the HelloFromEarth website.

HelloFromEarth is a project created by COSMOS magazine for National Science Week in Australia in collaboration with Australia’s Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and NASA, that enables anyone to send a short message to the potential inhabitants of the planet designated as Gliese 581 d.

Artist's impression of Gliese 581 d

Gliese 581 d is an extrasolar planet in the constellation Libra about 20.3 light years away from our solar system. It orbits a red dwarf (Gliese 581) at a distance of 0.22 AU – well within the habitable zone of the star, where liquid water could exists.

Artist's impression of the planetary system around the red dwarf Gliese 581. In the foreground planets Gliese 581 c and Gliese 581 b with super-Earth Gliese 581 d in a closeup - Source: ESO

Until now, almost 19,000 messages from all around world have been collected for Glieseans to read. Submissions are accepted until August 24, after which the data will be send to NASA’s JPL in California to be encoded into binary form and packaged for transmission. JPL will then send the data back to Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla, known as the Deep Space Station 43 (DSS43), which has for years been providing communication for NASA’s interplanetary missions. The 40-year-long wait for a potential response will begin August 29, 2009 when the 70-meter main antenna at DSS43 will transmit the signal aimed towards the Gliese 581 system.

Click here to send your message to Glieseans.

Here are a few selected submissions:

These are not the droids you’re looking for. Don – Denton, TX, United States

We are all lying in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars… Jeff N – Sydney, Australia

2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 73 79 83 89 97 101. Sam -Adelaide, Australia

All truth passes through three stages: first, it’s ridiculed; second, it’s violently opposed and third, it’s accepted as self-evident. It’s time to contact us! Simone – Latina, Italy

To Mr. Alien. I’ve got some jokes for you. Knock Knock. Who’s there. Rocket. Rocket who. Rockets coming to tickle you!! Watch out. See you later, Jack – Melbourne , Australia

We’ve been trying, but can’t read your crop circles. Tatyana – Seattle, WA, United States

Does “Santa” visit your planet? Have a happy holiday. Jan Kurrels – Canberra, Australia

What is the purpose of life? What is the universe and is there something beyond it? Can we reach your level of evolution one day? Pls answer. Bojidar -Sofia, Bulgaria

This is a chain SMS. Please send this forward to 10 new civilizations within a century and something good will happen to you. Kari-Pekka Arola – Tampere, Finland

Live Long and prosper. Miranda – Cleveland, United States

Please send the Cylon Number Six in the red dress. Craig Cormick -Canberra, Australia

A little more than a month ago, NASA launched the Kepler space telescope which is specifically designed to survey our neighborhood looking for Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone of their stars. Since the launch, the spacecraft has been slowly drifting away from the Earth and is now trailing us by more 3,000,000 km on its sun-centric orbit. At 12:13 p.m. UT on April 7, mission operators sent the commands to jetisson the telescope’s dust cover. Engineers at Kepler’s mission operations center at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, in Boulder, Colorado, will now use the incident startlight to calibrate the instrument and the “real” data collection will commence in a few weeks time. Meanwhile, NASA has released the first series of the star fields captured by the mission’s 95 megapixels camera (largest ever sent into space).

Kepler's full field of view. The capture region of the sky contains more than 14 million stars, more than 100,000 of which were selected as ideal candidates for planet hunting - Source: NASA

The star-rich region of sky between the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra stretching across 100 square degrees will be monitored constantly for three-and-half-year years (with the exception of downlink times). Scientist will analyze the data looking for periodic dips in brightness which occur when a planet crosses in front of their stars from Kepler’s point of view. The instruments aboard the spacecraft can notice changes in brightness of 0.002%  – small enough to detect transits of Earth-sized planets.

The region of sky under the surveillance of Keplet's 42 CCDs - Source: NASA

Detailed info about the mission is available at the NASA’s Kepler page. You can also follow the Kepler’s Twitter feed.

NASA’s Kepler mission successfully lauched into space last night.

Kepler Lanch - Source: NASA

It will be about two months before the observatory sends back first data, however it will take up to three years to confirm any Earth-like planets orbiting their stars in a habitable zone. Meanwhile, you can step into Kepler’s shoes with this interactive app:

Detailed info about the mission is available at the NASA’s Kepler page. You can also follow the Kepler’s Twitter feed.