Just realized, if you combine colonization and radio beacons, 1/1000x galaxy mass would be enough to make an artificial pattern of >2.5mJy sources over an area of the sky that’s bigger than NVSS’s beam size, and that may have been noticed by someone as an anomalous cluster/pattern of radio sources.
Between the analysis we’ve done so far and revisiting Anders and Stuart’s colonization analysis, I think it’s unlikely that there are unobserved aliens who are worth looking for. Especially given that 1/1000 of a galaxy is a pretty negligible budget, I expect someone would have been willing to spend >1 galaxy on this project if it makes sense and that’s a key margin.
My current plan is to award you and Stuart each $100 prizes and declare the contest closed.
It could be a drawing, but consisting of quasars, not from individual stars. A cube with a side of 1 billion ly could have a few million galaxies in it, so the drawing’s patter could be rather complex and provide tens or hundred kilobytes of information. Or else, the drawing could be rather simple beacon like a circle.
Just realized, if you combine colonization and radio beacons, 1/1000x galaxy mass would be enough to make an artificial pattern of >2.5mJy sources over an area of the sky that’s bigger than NVSS’s beam size, and that may have been noticed by someone as an anomalous cluster/pattern of radio sources.
Between the analysis we’ve done so far and revisiting Anders and Stuart’s colonization analysis, I think it’s unlikely that there are unobserved aliens who are worth looking for. Especially given that 1/1000 of a galaxy is a pretty negligible budget, I expect someone would have been willing to spend >1 galaxy on this project if it makes sense and that’s a key margin.
My current plan is to award you and Stuart each $100 prizes and declare the contest closed.
It could be a drawing, but consisting of quasars, not from individual stars. A cube with a side of 1 billion ly could have a few million galaxies in it, so the drawing’s patter could be rather complex and provide tens or hundred kilobytes of information. Or else, the drawing could be rather simple beacon like a circle.