It was 40 years ago that two Japanese astronomers, Masaki Morimoto and Hisashi Hirabayashi, sent a radio signal towards a star called Altair, 16.7 light years away.

Using a Stanford University telescope ‘while drunk’, the duo transmitted a message that aimed to show any aliens orbiting the star what Earthlings look like.

Now, a team of astronomers at the University of Hyogo is hopeful they will finally get the response that they have been waiting for – and prove that alien life exists.

They’re positioning a vast radio telescope in the city of Saku to receive a reply from any planets orbiting Altair, one of the brightest stars in the night’s sky.