This Astrophysicist Posed an Alien Challenge and the Internet Is Racing to Solve

[astr0144]

This Astrophysicist Posed an Alien Challenge and the Internet Is Racing to Solve It


If aliens sent you an encrypted binary message, could you answer? René Heller, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, wants to hear from you.

Last month, Heller posed a hypothetical question as part of the #SETIDecryptChallenge: "Suppose a telescope on Earth receives a series of pulses from a fixed, unresolved source beyond the solar system," he wrote. "It turns out the pulses carry a message."

The encrypted message is a vast sea of 0's and 1's. You can see it here, but here's a GIF for your convenience.

This Astrophysicist Posed an Alien Challenge and the Internet Is Racing to Solve It



Source: Mic/Max Planck Institute
According to Heller, a successful code cracker should be able to identify the height of an alien, how long it lives, how big its signal-transmitting device is, how long it's been communicating across the galaxy, what it lives on and how old its solar system is.

The rules are simple: You can collaborate with as many people as you want. You can chat about it on social media. You get three hints. And whatever method you turn in your results, it has to be readable by a human.

But what's so exciting about this is how people on Twitter are working to solve it by offering their own analysis as a starting point for others.





https://www.yahoo.com/news/astrophysicist-posed-alien-challenge-internet-153200596.html

[ArMaP]

That's interesting.

It would be more interesting if we could solve it.

[astr0144]

It could be an alternative possible way that ETs could try to communicate...

I am not clear as yet, on all the details..id need to read up on more and try to understand further...then think about it..

But I m not sure if they were able to send such messages ..do they travel at the speed of light...and if so as "Zorgon" has said so many times...Messages would take such a long time to travel across light years of space.

When we sent out messages... even if it was 100 years ago.. they have only as yet traveled 100 light years max, so far !

but maybe ETs sent their messages out 1000s of years ago

That's interesting.

It would be more interesting if we could solve it.