THE ARCTURUS PROJECT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [v1.01]

At 5:31pm on August 1st 1997, a radio message was received at theERSO Radio Observatory, coming from Arcturus. The signal receivedappears to be of intelligent origin, rather than a natural phenomenon.The signal is binary in nature, consisting of an amplitude-modulated(AM) carrier wave containing a tone that oscillates between two frequencies. 16129 distinct bits were recorded (tone high = 1, tone low = 0), then there was a pause 68 seconds long before the next "page" began. During this pause, the carrier wave was still present, though the amplitude-modulation ceased (the tone was silent). Several distinct pages were received in this manner, and then the whole process simply repeated, and continues to repeat to this day.

Each page has been stored in a simple text file, with each bitrepresented as an ASCII character ("0" or "1"), in the order theywere received, 60 characters per line (arbitrary number chosen,60 fits in most text viewers).

Your goal is to try to decode these messages. You may use whateverresources you have at your disposal, including but not limited tobooks on cryptography, physics, astronomy, and radio.

Hint for getting started: A message is much easier to read whenyou know how to view it correctly first.

Think you have the answer? Go to http://www.necrobones.com/seti/arcturus/

Data:~~~~~

Length of pause between pages: 68 secondsLength of each page in time: 1088 seconds (18.3 minutes)Length of each page in bits: 16129Frequency of transmission: 1420 MegaHertzSignal polarization: RandomSignal flux: 96 JanskiesSignal mode: AMTone frequencies (0,1): 240.94, 481.88 hertzMessage began: August 1, 1997 @ 5:31pm ETSource: Arcturus (class K2, 11 parsecs away)First detected by: ERSO Station

----------------------------------------------------------------------Revision History:

1.01 - Division statements on page 6 had reverse order on the operands. This has been corrected.

----------------------------------------------------------------------Fact or Fiction?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fiction. This "message from the stars" was created as a "game", theidea is to see just how easily a message can be decoded when it contains symbols and syntax that are unfamiliar, particularly whenthe message is intended to be easy to decode.---------------------------------------------------------------------- If the aliens start sending new messages, or transmit any revisions,they will be made available under new version numbers.----------------------------------------------------------------------

This text file and all of the message files are Copyright (C) 1997, Ed T. Toton III, All Rights Reserved.

Permission is hereby granted to distribute these filesfreely, as long as appropriate credit is given, and they are distributed in the original unmodified form.