6 June - Header and footer of the message remain elusive

June 7, 2023 July 6, 2023 Daniela de Paulis

The general public has been invited to find and decode a simulation of an alien message from space. The response has been overwhelming. In the initial stage people have analysed the telescope data and managed to extract a binary sequence that represents the message. They soon realised that the message consists of a header, a body and a footer.

As of yet, the header and footer of the message remain elusive.
The body of the message however, has been recognised as a two-dimensional image, which has been denoted as a "starmap", even though it is not yet certain that it does indeed represent a map.

People from all different backgrounds have studied the starmap with a range of methods. Suggestions for this map include astronomical objects such as pulsars, star-clusters, supernova, or other bright objects. But rather than an image, it has been suggested that the body should be interpreted as sound, or perhaps a frequency spectrum.

More recently people have even started to explore a possible relationship between the message and the behavior of honeybees and other insects. These creative ideas emerge from a collaboration on the Discord server where hundreds of people from the general public have organised themselves adapting a scientific approach.

There is a main discussion board, where everyone can share their contributions and questions regarding the deciphering of the message. Alongside this board dozens of threads have emerged that allow exploration of specific ideas, just like we see in the scientific community.