A group of scientists said that already-existing pictures that have been sent to space for educating aliens about how we look should be updated.

The diversity of views was obvious at a conference of the UK Seti Research Network (UKSRN) in Leeds, where the group’s 20 members were split down the middle in an informal vote. They think whether the images already “sent” to aliens reflect gender equality or not.

Jill Stuart, an expert in space policy at the London School of Economics, pointed to the plaque that was placed on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, launched in 1972.

However, discussing the likely content of the message at the British Science Festival in Bradford on Thursday, the need to revise our previous portrayals of life on Earth was raised. Therefore, experts in outer space political realm want to send an updated version of the photograph that is more ethnically diverse and shows a stronger female image.

To carry out the next pictorial message project, the UKSRN researchers will take part in the Breakthrough Message competition, which offers participants a prize worth $1 million for developing a digital missive that best represents the civilization of man. “Attitudes have changed so much in just 40 years”.

The picture chosen at the time to indicate our species was a waving man with a woman standing behind him; and although Carl Sagan said he intended the figures to be “panracial”, critics point out that the man and woman look white (Salzman-Sagan said she was inspired by Greek statues and Da Vinci’s paintings).

Anders Sandberg, a SETI representative from Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, said that the researchers’ decision to join the Breakthrough Message contest was hard-won.

“The thinking was that the silence in the skies might be because alien civilizations are hiding from us, and that it might be stupid to attract attention.”

Therefore, it could take an astonishing 200 years to even hear back from alien life forms from our closest potentially life-forming star.

There have been talks of drafting one message with pictures and the other with mathematics.

The contest prize also includes a new effort to bolster the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

There’s also the possibility that rather than an advanced alien race, our messages might find a civilisation slightly behind us. “No. Unless we had received transmissions of Big Brother, perhaps”.