What Message Does the Spectral Emission from Star GL1023 Convey?

[skyboarder2]

Hi,
Do someone have a clue on how to answer that? :

An anomalous bright red spectral emission line has been detected in the nearby solar-type star GL1023. The brightness of the feature sometimes suddenly changes by a factor 2 with a frequency of 0.92Hz. After about 10 min of these variations, the variations pause for about 1 min, then the pattern of brightness changes repeats itself exactly. If the high-intensity states are coded as 0's, the pattern consists of a string of 551 digits ([that I own]). Convert this signal into an intelligible message.
Hint: What kind of message would this be? What is special about 551?

...
Thanks for your help,
S2

 

[JaredJames]

So you think you found a binary pattern and want some help with it?

Or is this some type of brain teaser?

 

[skyboarder2]

More of a brain teaser... I didn't discover anything, unfortunately! (yet! ;D)

 

[IsometricPion]

Try arranging 551 squares into a rectangle.

 

[skyboarder2]

? I don't think I really get your advice...

 

[BobG]

The original post describes the reception of an interstellar transmission from a civilized race. It's highly unlikely that any civilization hearing the transmission would have a clue as how to decipher a language developed on a remote planet that they've never seen.

Hence, the transmission has to be a picture that teaches the listener the basics of a language and clues on how to receive more of the transmission.

Check out Voyager's Golden Record (a record placed on two spacecraft that explored some of the planets, on a trajectory to leave the solar system) and the solutions developed by other people that realized our radio signals could someday be detected by some other alien civilization.

A good picture message would be comprised of a rectangle whose sides would be prime numbers (in other words, the message length would be a semiprime number). That way, the worst the receiver could do would be to see the picture sideways.

Actually, I take that back. If your sides are in the wrong order, the picture would be broken. It will be obvious if you've chosen the right dimensions.

I did manage to get a copy of the book about the making of the Golden Record about a year ago. It's a pretty interesting book.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=377701

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message

You can pack a surprising amount of information into a 551 bit drawing, so it will probably take some real creative thinking to decipher it even once you've got a picture. Unless the person that gave you this puzzle is creative enough to design his own message, I think I have a suspicion what the picture is. It's harder than the Arecibo message that was actually transmitted. In fact, Drake gave associates copies of his 551 bit message to see if they could decode it and their feedback resulted in making the message longer and a little bit easier to decode.

 

[skyboarder2]

Found it!

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/futurelang.php

Thank you very much! ;D