Messages from around the world will be beamed into space as part of a project to explore views on the environment.

Online comments from the public will be converted into radio waves and sent towards the North Star this autumn.

It is estimated they will reach their destination, otherwise known as Polaris, in 434 years.

The celestial message in a bottle will be made up of people’s responses to the following question: "How will our present environmental interactions shape the future?"

The project, A Simple Response to an Elemental Message, is a collaboration between Edinburgh University, the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh and the UK Astronomical Technology Centre (UKATC).

Within 21 hours of transmission, the signal will have travelled deeper into space than mankind’s first message to the stars, Voyager 1, which was launched in 1977.

Project co-ordinator Paul Quast said Polaris had been chosen because of its significance as a reference point for navigators and stargazers.

Researchers want to use the responses to gauge if there are significant geographical differences in how people think about the environment and the future of the planet.

Mr Quast, a postgraduate student at Edinburgh College of Art, said: “Our present ecological decisions will have a massive impact on the future for all Earth’s inhabitants.

"This project will create a culturally-inspired message in a bottle capturing global perspectives that will travel into space for aeons.”

Members of the public are invited to visit the official website, www.asimpleresponse.org, to leave their contributions for the space broadcast.