I wonder if you also feel in a better mood when your sun is shining? This is the question some members of the audience might have considered asking our cosmic neighbours on star HR 8832 during the event on Sunday afternoon 2 October. DR moved its P1 editorial office out of the radio studio and researchers moved out of their departments, getting together in a programme called P1liveX – partly on the Arena Stage at the DR Concert Hall (DR Koncerthuset) in Copenhagen and partly at the Lakeside Lecture Theatres, Aarhus University.

During the event, the audience had until midnight on 25 October to send a greeting to the potential inhabitants on the planets located around star HR 8832, which lies 21.35 light years from Earth. Their messages will reach the planets in winter 2036 and any answers will reach us from summer 2058 – assuming there is intelligent life. Read more (in Danish only) about the messages and when they were sent.

Carsten Ortmann hosted the P1 radio programme ‘Existence’ (Eksistens), along with Professor Emeritus of the History of Science Helge Kragh (University of Copenhagen), Professor of Astrophysics Hans Kjeldsen (Aarhus University) and Associate Professor of the History of Ideas Casper Andersen (Aarhus University). They took the audience in Aarhus – as well as radio listeners and TV viewers all over Denmark – on a space safari through the planets of the Milky Way to find out if Earth is quite ordinary and whether there are other planets just like ours where there might also be life.

Prior to this, the audience had experienced live streaming from the DR Concert Hall (DR Koncerthuset) of the P1 programme ‘World of Science’ (Videnskabens Verden) with electric shocks to the brain, a radio story about hemp, relief and punishment, and a P1 documentary with a live premiere of ‘The Woman Who Disappeared’ (Kvinden der forsvandt).

You can see P1liveX (in Danish only) here.